Quote:
Originally Posted by nekokami
For a study of rates of reading in the US, see: http://www.nea.gov/news/news07/TRNR.html
From the "executive summary":
Summary of conclusions: - Young adults are reading fewer books in general.
- Reading is declining as an activity among teenagers.
- College attendance no longer guarantees active reading habits.
- Teens and young adults spend less time reading than people of other age groups
- Even when reading does occur, it competes with other media. This multitasking suggests less focused engagement with a text.
- American families are spending less on books than at almost any other time in the past two decades.
There are more data and conclusions in the following categories:
- Americans are reading less well
- The declines in reading have civic, social, and economic implications |
I think some of this has to do with the way books are forced on kids in school and the way they are made to dissect them. if I had not been a reader before that time, I might not have gotten into reading as I didn't like the way the English teachers taught literature.
And now we have computers, the internet, video games, TV/video, sports, and music to compete for time. And that leaves rather little time to actually sit and read. What I think should happen is parents should try to get kids interested in reading before they take up all this other stuff. That way they will enjoy it regardless of what other interests and teachers shoving literature at them.
Luckily, I can read in the car (except if I am driving) or on public transport, in a waiting room, etc. So I can get in some reading where most don't or won't.
My mother does read books. My dad just really reads the newspaper. I think that stems from when he was working. He'd come home, have dinner and then go sit and read the paper while watching TV. It was what he did a lot. There wasn't really all that much time during the work week for him to read books.