Actually, there are indeed statistics to show reading is on the decline over the last 25-30 years, at least according to government studies; <a class="postlink" href="http://www.nea.gov/news/news09/ReadingonRise.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.nea.gov/news/news09/ReadingonRise.html</a> So with the exception of the last few years, reading has gone down continuously for over 2 whole decades. And most likely, that upswing is related to the popularity of things like Harry Potter and Twilight, trash that doesn't do anything for one's brain more than a video game would. Personally, I'm not surprised. I read "a lot" of literature compared to the average person, and it's still a small fraction of what my parents and grandparents read in their day. However, I have some VERY intelligent friends, with PhDs in subjects like chemical engineering from top 10 schools, that don't read anything except textbooks. Does it hurt their overall intelligence and potential? Yes, probably. Are they still successful intellectually in spite of it? Absolutely.
Among American adults, it has. It doesn't give numbers for the under-17 set, and it lists the largest increase on record among young adults aged 18-24. So it's not really "this generation", is it? And you can assume that it was all Harry Potter and Twilight if you want, but you can't really prove it and, if we're going by the numbers, it doesn't really matter, does it? Because, by the numbers, we read more than the people who tell us we never read.
That's not what the statistics show. Since reading has been going down continuously among adults for a quarter century until the last couple of years, that means that 18-24 year old group reads more than the 21-27 year old group, but less than the 30+ year old group, let alone the 40+ demographic. And showing that the growth in reading is related solely to Harry Potter and Twilight is the easiest part. Just look at the best-selling books of all time, with numerous entries from those two franchises, as well as this;
People have been asking for numbers, here are some quick ones I just picked up. These statistics reflect reading printed word for pleasure; they do not take into account electronic of online media. A statistic about literacy rates (i.e. how many people read for pleasure), broken down by age demographic and tracked over twenty years: Spoiler Age 1982 1992 2002 18-24 59.8 53.3 42.8 25-34 62.1 54.6 47.7 35-44 59.7 58.9 46.6 45-54 54.9 56.9 51.6 55-64 52.8 52.9 48.9 65-74 47.2 50.8 45.3 What is striking is the over 17% drop amongst reading in young adults. Imagine if there was a 17% drop in, say, driving cars within a twenty year period. That's astronomical. Older people tend to keep the same rates. Some figures from the National Assessment of Education Progress, 2004 (America only): Spoiler - has tracked data for 36 years - the percentage of 17-year-olds who "Never or hardly ever read" went from 9% in 1984 to 19% in 2004. - the percentage of 17-year-olds who read for pleasure "Almost every day" dropped 9% Why does this matter? Some statistic that indicate how poor reading comprehension affects academics and the economy (again, US stats only): Spoiler National Centre for Education (2004) - 20% of college freshmen end up in remedial reading courses - 23% end up in remedial writing courses Alliance For Education (2006) -$1.4 billion is spent per year improving college freshmen skills that should have been acquired in high school - $3.7 billion lost per year because students have not learned basic reading and comprehension skills. Does e-technology replace reading in terms of making you smarter? Spoiler A direct quote from Mark Bauerlein: While eight- to 18-year-olds with high and low grades differed by only one minute of TV time (186-187 minutes), they differed in reading time by 17 minutes (46-29), a huge discrepancy. There is a whole chapter dedicated to this subject; I invite you to READ THE BOOK to find out more.
You're not accounting for the massive appeal of both those franchises outside their intended demographic. They didn't just sell well to children. They sold well, period. Which means those allegedly literate adults dropped Dostoevsky and picked up Rowling at some point.
Some years ago, in an interview published in an Australian newspaper, Elle Macpherson was quoted as saying something along the lines of "I wouln't read any book that I didn't write myself" There is something about that woman I've never really liked but at least her sister appeared in a home made sex video.
These are the reasons EVERYONE reads. I have an engineering degree. I also have quite a few liberal arts classes under my belt, and I can say unequivocally that the ability to transpose a matrix or remember the coefficient of friction for plastic has NO use whatsoever in my daily life; it has brought me no enjoyment, it has not enhanced my living in any way and the only time I ever used it was to pass the test in the course. Now, the ability to look at Goya's The Third of May or read Atlas Shrugged and think critically about what I'm seeing and discuss my ideas with other people of different backgrounds and see what we come up with? I've taken THAT skill with me all over the world. To suggest that reading is archaic and that only technological subjects matter nicely illustrates your ignorance.
This phenomenon is exactly the same as the people who proclaim "I can't do math" and are proud about it. Ignorance must truly be bliss or something. I read a lot as a kid, I had asthma when I was a toddler so I spent a lot of time sick sitting around with books. As i went through high school I was reading books on science and history and my knowledge of trivia and little facts is somewhat ridiculous and annoying to my parents and friends. Hell, I read the obligatory Harry Potter books 1-7 and even read Lord of the Rings in grade 6 when the movies first started coming out. However I find lately that with all this technology in my bedroom now (pc, tv, ps3) I am reading less and less at night. I guess you could say that technology is causing young peoples hatred of reading? It could be attributed to my brothers philosophy on books: "why read the book when you can see the movie? If you say its a good book, then it's probably going to be made into a movie"
I have always read a great deal, and continue to do so. The thought of people not reading horrifies me. I consider books to be a precious resource, and the fact that knowledge is literally at your fingertips, free, available, and people are not taking advantage of it, is galling. I have a personal library at home that I'm constantly adding to, but that now that I'm deployed, buying and shipping books here is cost and space prohibitive. I have purchased an iPad (which I'm typing this post on) and coupled with the Kindle app, has allowed me to continue reading as I have always done. In fact, a great deal of classical American literature can be found for free. I miss turning the pages of a real book though.
There are three large retail booksellers here in Honolulu. They all seem to do pretty well, employ a bunch of like-minded book geeks. I end up in a bookstore about once every two months and I'll end up spending about $100 on magazines and assorted bullshit books. The amount of people that read? People I know? I'm really not sure to be honest. What? I'm supposed to interview people for these threads now? The important part you should keep in mind, is that in Hawaii, people barely speak proper English. Yet, big bookstores can make money enough to keep stores open. Maybe we just like the pictures. I really like the idea of e-books, just for their sheer weight, I wish they were cheaper since they don't have to use any paper. Or ink. Or binding and glue...fuck it anyway, I like flipping the pages myself.
I am accounting for its massive appeal among adults, and in fact, that's my entire point. The demographic that the study tracked was adults aged 18-24, not children. So this "recent upswing in adult literacy after 25 years of decline" can mostly be attributed to those two franchises and their unprecedented sales numbers. (Most of which occurred after the release of the first HP film, the beginning of that study's results) Or, in your own words, "allegedly literate adults dropped Dostoevsky and picked up Rowling at some point", which would indicate that pleasure reading overall has become less popular, outside of those two franchises. Focus- Amusingly enough, reading is easier than ever nowadays. We have free Internet libraries, Rapidshare/Megaupload, torrents, Google Books, etc. At a speed of 2 pages a minute, reading a book takes as long as watching a movie. I'm suspicious towards the people in this topic who claim to "read a lot", too; I know how much I read, and how much my parents and grandparents, especially my father, read. My rate is many times less. How much is a "lot"? 10 books a year? 50? 100? 200?
So from the small percentage of people who read "high-brow" literature on their own accord we can assume that it satisfies neither the want for entertainment or information? Well I guess I differ from you then. I need to understand why things work the way they do, that's where I derive pleasure from reading non-fiction. To me anything of fiction is entertainment, and if it doesn't entertain it's not serving it's purpose. The ability to to quickly and effectively process current information and discern objective truth is becoming more important than finding the "deeper meaning" in literature. I will admit though that with so much information readily available people don't really KNOW as much as they should. We are increasingly becoming more reliant on computers to hold our knowledge rather than our brains.
About 3-4 years ago I was at a Borders bookstore browsing the New Reseases shelves when I bumped into a guy that worked at a pizza-cafe near work that I would go to. This guy made coffees/pizza and so on, he was in his late 20s to early 30s , a down to earth dude. We exchanged greetings and had a bit of a chat. I think I then asked him what he had read lately or possibly somthing he could recommend and his response floored me .... "I can't really read" he replied. Ohhhh ok , .... was my response. Inside I was thinking .... What the Fuck ! I didn't bother asking the why's and how's of his lack of reading skills , just felt sorry for the illiterate bastard.
If I couldn't sit down at the end of a long, hard fucking day or night [such as, well, right now] and delve deeply into a new interest or immerse myself into the worlds so beautifully manifested by authors like Bret Easton Ellis or Philip K Dick, I don't know what I would do... I'm sure a scotch and some beer would still be involved but I can't imagine what would fill that void... I pity people, and sometimes void [suddenly former] friends who intentionally deprive themselves of such luxuries, and especially those who mock reading. It is baffling. Shit, I read books about how books are written. Steven King's On Writing is phenomenal. I just finishing reading The Informers again and am about to dive into Less Than Zero. Fuck it maybe I'll finally break the binding on Weatherford's Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World. Thank fuck for the written word... and scotch.
It's interesting that you mention Sperm Wars as a book you read uncritically, because it's been mostly discredited. Experiments since it was published have failed to support the kamikaze sperm hypothesis, which was pretty shaky to begin with. There's an OK summary of the subject here - the experiments are cited at the bottom. You'd have found this out if you'd done any research after finishing it, which by your own admission you didn't. This isn't to criticize you or say the book is worthless, but I think your post makes a good case for questioning everything you read - even if it's by an expert. 'The ability to process information and discern truth' is exactly what he's talking about. Have you ever met a rabid Ayn Rand fan? They're not fun to talk to. I don't know if you've read Atlas Shrugged, but it's a very politically and emotionally charged book, and when people read it who aren't equipped to handle it, you get trouble. Conversely, if you are prepared, it can enrich your life. It's a valuable skill.
I'd probably read a ton more books and be educated and sophisticated like my elders were. Then again they didn't have YouJizz, Youporn, Pornhub, Spankwire, and countless other FREE STREAMING PORNOGRAPHY WEBSITES. Couldn't say they wouldn't have chosen the same options had they had them. Two threads about how much the current generation sucks. Depressing start to the week.
It's always the same. "This one is the decline of humanity. Definitely. There's no doubt about it. I mean, things weren't perfect before but THESE KIDS WILL END IT ALL!" This argument will be made until the end of time.
When I first started reading, I hated it. The books grownups read to me were so much more fun, because I could understand much more complex books than the ones I could read. Then I realized that the better I was at reading, the better the books were that I could read. I don't think that concept is stressed enough in kindergarten/first grade when learning to read is such a big part of education. I've never met a kid who didn't like stories, even video game obsessed little boys still like being read to at night. Learning to read is tough, but if you can convey that it just takes some practice, and that the better you get the more fun it becomes, I think little kids would be a lot more likely to become readers. But maybe I'm just naive.