Young People Reading a Lot Less

Via Boston.com -

We know what young people are doing more of: watching television, surfing the Web, listening to their iPods, talking on cellphones, and instant-messaging their friends. But a new report released today by the National Endowment for the Arts makes clear what they're doing a lot less of: reading.

The report - a 99-page compendium of more than 40 studies by universities, foundations, business groups, and government agencies since 2004 - paints a dire picture of plummeting levels of reading among young people over the past two decades. Among the findings:

Only 30 percent of 13-year-olds read almost every day.

The number of 17-year-olds who never read for pleasure increased from 9 percent in 1984 to 19 percent in 2004.

Almost half of Americans between ages 18 and 24 never read books for pleasure.

The average person between ages 15 and 24 spends 2 to 2 1/2 hours a day watching TV and 7 minutes reading.

"This is a massive social problem," NEA chairman Dana Gioia, said by phone from Washington. "We are losing the majority of the new generation. They will not achieve anything close to their potential because of poor reading."

It is not just the amount of reading. According to the report, reading ability has fallen as well. While scores have improved for 9-year-olds, they dropped sharply for 17-year-olds. Only about a third of high school seniors read at a proficient level, a 13 percent decline since 1992. "And proficiency is not a high standard," Gioia said. "We're not asking them to be able to read Proust in the original. We're talking about reading the daily newspaper."

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I believe this study is correct yet flawed. After reading this article, it is clear that the pushers of this study see no relation between "surfing the web'" and "reading". We live in a digital world where ink on paper is not the only way to read anymore.

I "surf the web" all the time and I read daily newspapers from not only my own nation but nations on the other side of the planet.

Reducing reading proficiency is a clear sign that something is going wrong.....but counting the number of kids in the local library is not a very good indication of reading. Given, I am 28 and no longer in that kid age range, but I only buy a newspaper when I don't have a computer handy.

Reading as changed and our understanding of it has to change as well.