We’ve got to write an editorial on the decline in readership among the youth of today and I’m struggling to describe what the aliterate world of the future may look like. Will it be better or worse? Pick a side and support your argument. If you pick the bad side, explain what can be done to change the course of humanity. Respond to the discussion post on this subject (do not create your own post please). Please also respond with comments on your colleagues’ responses.
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If the world continues in the current trajectory, humanity will be worse off. The world will be populated with less literate people. People will have a greater reliance on technology, and what happens in a power outage, or if the fabled war that ends technology actually occurs. Without “Ask Siri” or “You Tube” to provide instant answers and knowledge, people will not know how to function. On a more immediate timeline, less literate people have less imagination, and are less able to solve complex problems. Basic grammar rules are lost, giving way to text-speak which changes they dynamics of basic conversation. Technology is an amazing part of our society, but we need to work to keep our population literate. Perhaps metering the use of technology as a source, such as in education, so that students must continue to use the written word, and “old fashioned” research techniques.
I am with you Mr. Walsh. I fear that if we do not reverse this trend then we will see all the issue you brought up become more prevalent in our society. Being spoon fed by technology is amazing, we can focus our thoughts on so many different things. However, sadly we are choosing not to as an aggregate.
Thanks for your post Dahsn!
I agree, if people stop reading and rely solely on technology, humankind is screwed. (We’ve all seen those movies!) Already, we are seeing a rapid morphing of language which in turn changes how some communicate. i think you hit on some valid points.
I would have to agree with your, and its sad. With so much information and technology so easily at hand, we have no excuse to be the most informed people of our time.
I completely agree. Technology is a great aide but it cannot become something that society is dependent upon. Maybe some of you out there have come across the situation of a power outage at work before and been faced with using a manual credit card machine and seen how troublesome even this has become. We have become really good at hitting buttons and are caught off guard when critical thinking is at hand.
Although I agree that solely relying on the internet is bad, if the ability to read is still there and the skill of searching for answers is present, I believe the problem will not be so loud. The imagination factor worries me though. It is so rare anymore that people answer a question with their own thought. They answer with “Just Google it!”
I think you are very right in the fact that people question to much, and ask to many questions and to find those answers they simply “Google” them or ask a friend, kind of reminds me of the commercial on the television of ” so you think that what ever you read or see on the net is the fact” well the sad notion of the matter is that is where 90% of today’s youth as well as adults get there facts, The question we now have to ask our selves is are we just getting the information the way mas media wants us to see it through search optimization, and is that information in fact factual, with documented sources or is a bunch of garbage that they want you to believe in? look up “tree octopus” and tell me if they really exist? there are some good trumped up web sites out there that want us to believe that they do. but come on common knowledge tells us that octopus only live in water, but what am I saying only you can be the judge of the information that you are researching.
I do not see a future where millennials or the follow generations reading less will be beneficial to humanity in any way. I already see the effects of poor literacy on topics when broached with common political topics. It is incredible to see that convenient information is dissected, but peer reviewed and scholarly papers are ignored. I see mass media becoming an even more powerful funnel for information and people being lazy enough to do no background research on anything. Point blank, I think idiocracy, or at least portions of the movie will fast become reality if we do not reverse the laziness of young scholars.
I totally agree, Why read a book when we care about watching TMZ to find out what Leonardo di caprio does in his free time, watching Nat Geo to find out what the “real Alaskans” are doing on their homestead or how Judge Judy is going to rule on her next case. Given this, we certainly shouldn’t be surprised when we experience what I would call the “dumbing of “America.” Reading is just not seen as so important anymore when we can get our information by watching or listening – Remember the “Reading is Fundamental” campaign? What concerns me most about this is the fact that a strong democracy depends on an educated populace – that translates to a population that can and does read. If young people are not instilled with the value of the written word early on how can our democracy survive? One thing for sure, I can’t wait for Harper Lee’s new book to come out tomorrow! I want to find out what Scout has been up to!
If readership amongst youth continues to decline the way it already is, then not only the youth but the world will be worse off than it already is. Unfortunately, due to the increasing population in electronics of all forms, reading has become less of an amenity and more of a chore it seems like for some people. I have never been a “reader” myself, but I’ve also never relied heavily on electronics for amusement. Reading allows not only youth, but adults to have a creative imagination, and stretch their brains to think outside the box. If we continue down the path that we are on with suppressing youth’s desire to read and promoting the use of electronics because it’s “easier”, then we are going to have a world of drones basically, and not a world of creative thinkers. In order to change this we need to look at the benefits of what reading does for a mind, and focus on the negatives that electronics do to a child’s brain, that should be motivation enough for us to change the path we are on.
Hi Melia,
Thanks for your post!
Do you think reading content in digital/electronic format versus from pages of paper is bad? What would suppress a young person’s desire to read simply because the content is displayed on a tablet versus a bound book? (I wasn’t sure if that was your point or if you mean immediate access to information, without working to read through an entire book, was a detriment or not.)
Personally, I think one of the best things in the world for a kid, or anyone, to do, is to sit down and get lost in reading for periods of time and let imagination fill in the void that text on paper leave that film fills for us.
I was wondering about this aspect to — a lot of the physicality of reading is lost in the tablets and ebooks i.e. the feel, the look, even the smell for some people of holding a book. The increase in electronics is overwhelming not only just for children though but people of all ages and backgrounds. It’s total sensory overload and if we don’t listen to our body’s cues or even learn to regulate ourselves properly, that is when we become the “drones” mentioned.
JRN F101 — Media and Culture
Summer Week 1, Discussion 2 of 2
J. Wyman
July 7, 2015
Aliterate (a·lit·er·ate), adjective: unwilling to read, although able to do so.
If I could predict the future, I’d be a betting man. I’m not. But, if I had to guess as to the future and the decline in “readership†among youth, I would, unfortunately, have to say things will get worse. By worse, I mean I believe the generations of the future will be so blitzed in the face with rapid-fire media, and will have zettabytes of information accessible at the touch of the finger or thought of the mind, that reading, in the form as we know it, will be obsolete. Direct content-to-brain connections seem possible. I don’t imagine sitting down with a 472 page text book to read chapter by chapter will be a popular activity in the future. Hard copy books will be antiques and digital, electronic media will be everyday life. Is this necessarily bad? I think the rapid pace of life we live today is bad and getting worse. People are more apt to text someone versus speak in person even when in the same room or household. I think we, as a culture, are losing some of the social, human, bonds that have been critical to our survival in the past. Reading a hard copy book is not essential but consuming and understanding information is. But, asking if such a future is bad or not is like asking if change is bad or not. Sometimes it is and sometimes not and you don’t know until after the fact. If by aliterate, you mean people stop reading or consuming written material (digital or other), then I would say that would be bad. But, if technology makes it so learning from information, and obtaining more information in a shorter time span is possible, that may be a good thing.
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Thank you for perhaps the most level-headed analysis of the changing media tastes of today. Most of our peers are lamenting the end of human thought, so it’s nice to see a very patient, reasoned line of thought that weighs the good against the bad.
The outcome of e-readers versus actual bound books is a hard one. I am one of the old fashioned types that can’t get over a crumpled, tattered old book that’s been read a million times or the smell from the pages. Perhaps in that case I worry more about the sensory inputs on individuals. Maybe nothing will happen but maybe there will become a generational gap between simple things like old books, fluffy blankets, and a crackling fire versus sleek technological devices and how many likes a picture can earn.
Your post reminds me of the movie Wall-E. Maybe everyone will have their own computer and spaceship combo where they will sit every day and zone out. They will not have to think for themselves, nor will they want to. Efficiency at times can create laziness. There are also many fictional shows about people that hook up to a virtual world, similar to a video game, and live there (good ones are .hack//Sign and Sword Art Online). They want to escape from reality into their make believe, perfect utopia. Will they have to be any smarter to survive there? I hope so.
So glad you brought up the idea of progress and what is meant by that. Even though there are some people who would gladly pick up an “antique” rather than an e-reader, I doubt these same people would be willing to give up all associated technology — computers, tablets, touch screen phones, etc. Change and advances in technology all build upon one another, like the butterfly effect.
If we can still get the point across, like you mention, that as a culture being able to consume and understand information is still vital, the future will look quite less grime than imagined and perceived.
“Intellectual laziness and the hurry of the age have produced a craving for literary nips. The torpid brain… has grown too weak for sustained thought. There never was an age in which so many people were able to write badly.” – Israel Zangwill, 1891
“…Human faculty dwindle away amid the million inventions that have been introduced to render its exercise unnecessary. … Those who are dipping into so many subjects and gathering information in a summary and superficial form lose the habit of settling down to great works.” – G. J. Goschen, 1894
(Source: https://xkcd.com/1227/. I also tried to track down the ~1900 complaint that we will ruin children by teaching them to write on paper rather than on a chalk slate, but could not find it in time.)
As with the above postings by my colleagues, these quotes indicate that we have mourned the death of literacy thousands of times before, in the face of thousands of previous technologies. The advent of newspapers and magazines was believed to mark the end of socialization, the rise of the telegraph was to eliminate all letter-writing. Simply put, an entrenched generation will never fail to fear and lament any change in the behavior of its successors.
“Aliteracy” is a deeply misleading term to describe the decline in readership. Perhaps print sales are down, yes, but that simply means that fewer people purchase physical newspapers. Online readership, as well as consumption of other means of communication (streaming video, podcasts, et cetera) are at all-time highs, the only difference is one of expectation — online content is expected to be free, therefore “readership” as measured by paper sales is down. Personally, I find living in a world where my pocket-sized supercomputer lets me access the sum of all human knowledge in an instant quite exciting and hopeful, but if you’re inclined then by all means circle up at the old folks home and wail and tear out your hair as the word “millennial” slides hatefully from your lips.
The free flow of data is the most compelling development of the 21st century — through the internet, news and information can be disseminated in real time, and revisited at-will. As journalists, our commitment should be to tell the stories and events of the day as quickly and accurately as possible, regardless of the medium by which our work is delivered. We must embrace and adapt to this new reality, or get left in the dust with the other dinosaurs.
I completely agree with your argument about print vs. web based media. Another plausible reason behind print sales going down could also be that, simply put, print is no longer eco- or economically friendly. The costs alone to print newspapers rather then just paying for a domain can attest to that.
Turns out the “slate” quote I was seeking is a whole string of complaints, written for humorous intent (at least according to one investigative source). You can find them here: https://quoteinvestigator.com/2012/04/21/students-bark/
I agree that there is certainly a major decline in youth reading now a days. I have three young kids and they find no interest in it unless I push them to do it. I remember as a young kid myself that I read everything I could get my hands on, whether I liked or agreed with the subject matter. Now as I am a little older I have found that I do not read as much as I would like, unless its on a electronic version of some kind, news, social media, etc. I find it sad that with all the technology and such at our very fingertips that we are the least informed culture of our times it seems. A hundred – two hundred years ago people that where English reading individuals that did read where fluent in Latin, Greek, and spent a lot of time reading and researching and understanding what they learned. Now a days if we do read, its on a quick scale it seems, we as a whole do not research, we take what small bits of information that we see on social media and accept it as the truth without looking at it deeper and seeing it is true and factual. With this, so many of our youth do not really know the history of our country or the world in which they live in. We have become a dumbed down society with so much technology that gives us a wealth of information at our fingertips, yet we waste it.
The future of an illiterate America is a dim one. As technology advances and attention spans diminish, the depth of news articles is dwindling as well. With these shorter articles come less information and less credibility. While a topic is introduced it is not discussed and information sources provide less and less support for their own credibility on the subject. Rather than taking in information and considering it or researching it further, people are reading a short headline shared on their Facebook feed and running with it. The purpose of mass media is to reach as many people as possible and expand their knowledge base and hopefully their worldviews. That doesn’t work when people lose interest in actually reading full articles and considering the information at hand.
In order to combat the decline in readership among the youth today writing needs to be aimed at brevity while covering the topic to the furthest extent possible by an author, and from all possible viewpoints. As individuals’ attention spans begin to dwindle, information doesn’t need to be omitted but rather a more concise matter of communicating needs to be established. Young people need to be compelled to seek the truth behind the subject of an article and news sources need to provide the proper channels for that examination.
I really enjoyed reading your viewpoint. I think it applies to many people. I think the most important point you make is in your last sentence. “Young people need to be compelled to seek the truth behind the subject of an article…” I believe this is the most important thing we can teach people today. Questioning information and seeking the truth is something we all should do.
Assignment [1]
Discussion [2 of 2]
Eddie Crosby
July 10, 2015
First and foremost let me say what we are really talking and thinking about here, it is called censorship of a constitutional rights to our basic freedoms of speech and information through publication, am I right? Well that to me is a slippery slope if you ask me. First yes I do agree that there is a lot of miss represented information out there to be had by miss informed minds to do what with in which they please so yes I do think that some information should be left out of the publication of print but who am I to say what should or should not be printed it might take a stronger person than me to fill those shoes, to be able to tell one person that the information that they want to print is ok for general public yet at the same time I would be telling another that there information is to risqué to be put out in the open.
I guess what I am trying to say is that what and how we chose to use the information that we read or watch on films and in books is more damaging to a society than to be printing it in the first place.
I err caution upon the idea of censorship because once that idea is put into motion it would be a hard door to close and even a harder door to defend.
We are a nation of intelligent free thinking individuals that are always open to new ideas and new ways of thinking and when an agency or a free rouge corporation or governmental entity has the ability to censor what we see or do, then to me it is not that much more of a grasp to think of George Orwell’s “1984†society, and how much closer we could be edging towards it.
Reading has gone down significantly in our youth, but to what level? Also, what kind of reading are we talking about? Perhaps our youth are reading more content now than ever, but the type of reading has changed. By reading, if I am not mistaken, we are primarily talking about books at the library. However, since the internet has come out, we are reading tons of articles every day about our need-to-know topics. We are reading tutorials on video games. We are reading “How to make a sword†on WikiHow. Even if the quantity of reading has decreased, the amount of different information we are able to access and learn from has increased. I would trade these mounts of knowledge over a 300 page fictional book any day. With access to the internet’s answers, we are able to drastically increase our IQ levels. It is an issue of quality over quantity. In this case, I vouch for “less is moreâ€.
However, if is true that we are not only reading less, but learning less, this poses a problem. Rates of school performance will decline, college dropout levels will rise, and in a worst case scenario, schools will dumb themselves down so they can receive more applicants. It will be more a money concern than an educational concern. According to the run of the mill rumors I’ve heard, this dumbing down process has already occurred. Who cannot enter college when the minimum high school GPA acceptance is a 2.5? If people are alliterate, they can read, they just choose not to. I foresee the future generations to evolve into illiteracy, which is even worse. If alliterate parents do not care to enforce their children to read, who will be the driving force to encourage our children? As many good teachers say, “It starts at home.†We will not be competitive with the rest of the world if our literacy levels drop. Even if we can read and only choose not to, our abilities to comprehend and interpret readings will drop without consistent practice.
I will speak for myself on this issue. I truly believe our future generations will be smarter and more competitive across the globe with our rate of knowledge. I rarely read through a whole book even if it’s part of a college class, because it is unrealistic to expect a student to get through 100 books in a semester. Skim reading is necessary. The skill to be able to pick out key facts and draw conclusions is a necessity. This first book I read in college was “How to Read a Book.†I found out I was doing it all wrong. My professor specifically told me, “Do not read college books in a traditional sense, or you will never make it!†The way we are reading is changing, that is evident. Is it a bad thing? I think not. We are evolving into something greater and more efficient.
I do agree with you that maybe what the youth are reading are just in a different form. And I do agree as well that since internet has become so popular for articles and such, it’s most likely what the youth is using as reading material. However, things are published on the internet all the time that are are not completely factual, or is not from a reliable source, whereas books that are published (whether fiction or non-fiction) are something that time was dedicated to in order to make a piece of work from beginning to end. A lot of things published on the internet now a days seems incomplete and quite frankly “half-assed”. That’s just my opinion and like I said, I do agree with you that youth are obviously still reading somewhat, it’s just in a different form.
The discussion topic describes that we live in a world where technology makes everything basically instantly accessible. This ranges from Google to youtube, where someone can turn on a switch and learn to do something because someone makes a tutorial on how to do something. I think that if we keep traveling down this road where younger generations are not using reading as a method of strectching the minds of our youth and it will eventually lead to problems because technology is already keeping people contained to themselves and not out experiencing real things.
It’s true technology has become the primary means of learning new things, even in all of our cases thanks to technology we are able to take this course. Technology does have the advantage of being such a quick go to resource if we ever have questions. Books used to be that primary resource we used to learn new things. I also agree that the youth’s illiteracy will lead to future problems.
I am having a hard time picturing this aliterate society. I am sure that the traditional method of picking up a book and turning the pages to read it is being replaced with the new technologies. Just because it is being replaced, does not mean that reading is disappearing. I think it is actually causing some people to read more. A case in point would be my husband. I have never seen him pick up a book to read it, but I have seen him on the computer looking up many different things he is interested in learning more about. I doubt he is the only one like this.
I don’t think that the world is going to be destroyed by youtube videos any more than it was destroyed by the invention of the VCR. I believe there are always going to be people who read for entertainment. This is something that is passed from one generation to the next. If the parents read, the children will read.
As each new advancement takes place, I think there is some fear with it. The unknown is always a little scary and there are always people who seem to take advantage of that. Overall, I think the advances are good. There are people who take things to the extreme, but most people seem to be able to moderate themselves and enjoy the new things without becoming completely controlled by them. I have faith that our society will continue to find new ways of doing old things. This includes new ways to read and learn.
You make a very good point, all this new technology was created as a means of bettering our lives in some way. There is always some bad with the good and it will be hard to see which one outweighs the other in the end. Perhaps the world is changing and neither is better they are simply different lifestyles.
The problem with aliteracy comes more from the definition of “people possess the ability to read but are unwilling to do so.” Why are they unwilling? Does this come from mass media and mainstream culture? With the rise of books being turned into movies I can’t see their popularity completely dying out on that end. Are we talking about the stereotypical view of reading, bound books? E-readers are rising in popularity, from sales in tablets, phone apps, computers, etc. And are we talking about newspapers, magazines, books, blogs, online articles? With the rapid advance in technology, our definitions for literacy and aliteracy need to change as well.
I don’t think the world is ready for fire and brimstone just yet, and I don’t think the aliteracy rates are a problem. With all of the access to technology, resources, and information that we have in this day and age, aliteracy will never completely go away just as illiteracy will never disappear either. But aliteracy is not something that needs to be seen as a high class threat — the youth today is reading just not in the traditional sense.
I wouldn’t start burning your computers and iPhones just yet. While an issue with aliteracy would imply that younger and younger generations are simply choosing to not read, I’d argue that it’s a bit narrow minded to decide that they must be less informed as a result. What about radio? Video? Spoken communication of any kind? All of those platforms can be used as a source to derive news from. Sure, in a romantically simple world, everybody would love reading, yoga, and artisnal coffee, but that’s simply not the way of our current planet. I love news, in all forms, but I often find my only time to indulge in it now is on my way to or from classes. Obviously, reading and walking can be a bit of a fall hazard, so I usually listen to NPR broadcasts on my phone while I walk instead. Does the fact that I’m listening to it rather than reading it make it less credible?
(I’ll answer that for you; No.)
Long ago in our past only the prestigious were expected to be literate. Now a days everyone is, and if they are not, they are perceived as not being able to be adequate contributing members of society. Our society has always been able to function with alliterate people. There are more distractions nowadays preventing people from wanting to read and write because the distractions seem more exciting. The value of sitting down with a good book has become overrated. Schools do a good job of making sure children continue reading by requiring them to do summer reading. But by this being a requirement I feel that it makes reading more of an obligation than something students choose to do for fun. Barnes and Nobles also does a good job of providing an inviting atmosphere with a plethora of reading material providing books who’s topics can interest any person. Although our society can continue to function with alliterate people I feel the less you use your skills the more you forget them. If you don’t practice a language you will forget bits and pieces over time. I feel that it is the same with not reading and writing. If you don’t read you will not gain more knowledge of vocabulary and their uses and meanings. With writing, if you don’t actively practice you may forget rules of grammar and spelling.
The severity of the decline caused by alliterate people all depends on the scale of how many alliterate people there are. Our functionality as a society is driven by those who are literate. Therefore if our society lessens the importance of being literate I do believe as a society we will be further behind other societies who put an emphasis on the importance of it. We need to make reading exciting to our own youth. Inspire them to search for books who’s topics are of interest to them. This will spark the reward system. This will cause the youth to realize the benefits of reading.
A decline in youth readership today will lead to future generations being worse off. It is fortunate that the majority of Americans and Canadians are literate, but unfortunate that very few read any material with substance. It is my perception that youth are not reading for “funâ€, like my parents’ generation. Why do literate youth refuse to read traditional literature like books? I believe the main reason is that youth today are “hooked†on electronic devices and the instantaneous information, whether it is true or false, that is available on the internet. Information and entertainment come to us in Tweets that are 140 characters or less. It is difficult to provide any literary substance based on the shortness of the message. The material is typically retweeted to others without adding anything of value. The attention span is just not there to sit down for youth of today to sit down for hours and read a novel.
What can be done to reverse the course of youth aliteracy? I think it is too late to reverse this trend. The public education system and society has failed youth in teaching the basics of reading, writing and arithmetic. In Nova Scotia, a parents permission is required for a student to fail a grade. It seems to me that the political and social will to affect change to reverse this trend is just not there and future generations will be worse off as a result.