Someone at dinner yesterday said to me: "Reading is becoming a privilege." The rest of the dinner

[Raven]

was taken up with a discussion of what that means. A math teacher at the table said that some of her kids have never read a book. I have an 11 year old granddaughter who won't read anything that isn't on a screen.

I am at a loss to know what is going on here.

[LisaM]

1. I don't know how to fix it.

We have a niece who is about 20 and she does nothing, nothing but watch YouTube videos. She is 100% addicted.

[50 Shades Of Blue]

2. When I was a kid I LIVED to read, but had friends who never cracked open a book.

There are still millions of kids' books being published each year so someone must still be reading them!

[babylonsister]

3. I did also; I remember many a night

under the covers with a flashlight.

I applaud my parents for lighting that fire as they were both readers; all 5 of us 'kids' had or still have the reading bug, which I am forever grateful for.

[50 Shades Of Blue]

17. I used to contort myself to read in bed by the light of my nightlight, LOL!

My parents were both readers, too, and I'm also grateful for growing up in that environment!

[Ping Tung]

7. I learned to read at the age of four because my older siblings wearied of reading to me. So they taught me to read.

I actually had to skip kindergarten because I was literate. Which always me the youngest in all the future classes.

I read many books aloud to my wife of 45 years until her hearing went bad. That included "War and Peace" which took weeks and we both loved.

There seems to be a very strong anti-intellectualism from Trump and his ignorant pals.

[SheltieLover]

11. Of course. He loves the uneducated because easier to screw over

[malaise]

4. As long as books are available on computer screens

I am OK.
That said the dumbing down of people everywhere is real

[SheltieLover]

12. I believe Dems should initiate a huge literacy project

[malaise]

14. Good idea

Sadly the truth is unpopular and so is reason.

[SheltieLover]

20. But it would cost nothing

And you should see how proud these 100% illiterate hillbillies are when they can use auto txt to send a message.

My grandson taught an older cognitively impaired fellow & he is so proud to even be able to text yes or no. Not joking.

Maybe we should talk more about this / consider the idea.

I consider my ability to read & discern truth 2nd only to the essentials of air, water & food.

Once a person can read, me thinks they could evolve into being woke.

[malaise]

21. You are correct

I heard a man telling his brethren that he is teaching literacy to some youth who want to text. These are teens who cannot read or write.

[SheltieLover]

22. Ty for validating my gut feeling.

I know teachers do their part, some parents do their part, but I want to give it a go. What greater gift than freedom from illiteracy?





Ps - very proud of my grandson for helping the elder fellow!

[Diamond_Dog]

28. My local "Neighbors"website proves to me every day

how illiterate most people are these days!

[malaise]

30. It's sad

Bangs head

[SheltieLover]

49. Gawd... these folks I'm talking about have zero tech skills

No need to have internet because they cannot read or communicate to any degree in written form.

What's next? Pictograms for adults?

But I think Dems should initiate a massive volunteer litreracy project, esp in rural areas.

[womanofthehills]

44. Good Luck with that -

Kids no longer have the ability to enjoy a book - books are boring to them compared to their phones.

I love to read - but I don’t have the time to actually sit down and read - so it’s Audible for me - I can listen while doing chores, driving etc. I’m even listening to fewer books because I’m into podcasts.

[malaise]

29. I do wonder about that

Earthquakes, hurricanes, tsunamis, etc.

[malaise]

37. Way wider than that

Last edited Thu Dec 26, 2024, 05:22 PM - Edit history (1)

This is a global problem

[malaise]

61. No coincidence

and they hate science

[johnnyfins]

45. Read "One Second After" or "Lights Out"

Or both. Very good books about this subject, and are not overly political.

I think you can still find them as a free pdf on the interwebs.

[SheltieLover]

51. Exactly!

[efhmc]

40. So true.

[canetoad]

42. My tablet has rescued

My ability to read from failing eysight. Solar power bank fixes the power problem.

[Ex Lurker]

58. If you think kids are reading books on their phones and tablets, you're kidding yourselves

They're primarily scrolling TikTok and social media. There are college students now who have never read a novel.

[Ex Lurker]

66. It gets worse

We used to think video games were the problem. Now they don't even play video games themselves. They watch livestreams of other people playing the video games.

[Scrivener7]

5. I don't see how "privilege" comes into it. If kids don't want to read, it doesn't mean

reading is something beyond the reach they are allowed.

[Iris]

15. Right? I suppose you could say they since the privilege of refusing to read

or do anything else that gives them a wider worldview and in that way can shut themselves off from thinking about things that make them uncomfortable

[meadowlander]

41. In the sense that reading takes time, focus and mental energy

there are probably people who aren't privileged enough to be able to spare those things for a hobby. There are certainly long periods of my life where I was working too hard and was too tired at the end of the day to pick up a book.

The attention economy is sapping away peoples' time and focus but it is also, for many people, a choice to scroll on TikTok all day instead of picking up a book. And for most kids, it's not economic necessity or other demands that keep them from reading - it's that they can get a comparable dopamine hit from activities that require a lot less energy from them.

[UpInArms]

6. When our son was growing up,

I would read books aloud every night …

Some of my favorites were All’s Quiet on the Western Front
Little Shepherd from Kingdom Come …

So many … later, I read the entire Harry Potter series …

Yesterday, our adopted daughter and I were talking about reading … and she told me that books were not a thing when she was a child … she now loves to read …

[milestogo]

8. When I was a kid I read nonstop

1200 pages of Gone With the Wind
Lots of novels that were way beyond my grade level
Now I listen to books, read books, and have a kindle.

One thing I MUST have a physical copy of is a COOKBOOK. The stains tell a story.
I only watch dramas and historical shows, and I watch a lot of them.

Reading is a necessity.

[SheltieLover]

13. I still read nonstop

2-3 books / day.

[Diamond_Dog]

32. My mother instilled a love of reading in me and I was reading any time I wasn't drawing.

I read to my three kids all the time before they went to school. They all could read by the time they went to kindergarten. I could never understand other kids who hated to read. They were the ones calling me a nerd because I always had my nose in a book.

2-3 books a day is impressive by any standard!!!

[Skittles]

69. I wasn't allowed to watch much TV

but I could get a lot of library books

[PeaceWave]

9. It sounds like your dinner party lacked a historian or sociologist...

The times we are living in are similar to the period following the advent of the Gutenberg movable-type printing press in 1440. From that point forward, control over writers' works could easily be trampled on, with countless copies printed without the authors' knowledge and certainly without these authors receiving proper compensation. As such, outside of academic circles, the incentive to write subsided - for a period of 270 years - until the first copyright law was enacted in the form of the British Statute of Anne of 1710. The full title of this law was "An Act for the Encouragement of Learning, by vesting the Copies of Printed Books in the Authors or purchasers of such Copies, during the Times therein mentioned." Does any of this sound familiar to the times we have been living in since the advent of the internet? Whether it was Napster, Apple or now AI, the rights of musicians, film makers and authors have - over the last 30 years - consistently been crushed by a steady and relentless stream (pun intended) of technologies intended to strip these artists of due compensation for their works and thus disincentivize them from further creation. As voters, it is in our hands to decide whether we are going to wait another 240 years to push for a major revamping of our copyright laws to address what is happening. The alternative is to accept the equivalent of a literary and artistic Dark Ages.

[Arazi]

43. As a creative, I don't think the drive to create subsides

Commercial success of one’s creation is never assured (unless you’re of the caliber of a Stephen King, Spielberg, Ai Weiwei, Annie Liebowitz etc where you’re work is immediately financially recognized)

Most creatives will continue as they always have - persisting because they must in order to “live” a full life.

Do we need to solve the scraping of original content into the AI vacuum?

YES! Hard agree there…

[snot]

56. Another tendency that I believe to be evidenced by history

is that soon after the new tech appears, the resultant increased sharing of info and ideas leads to aan efflorescence of helpful innovation. At some point after that, TPTB recognize the tech as having undermined their control over the flows of info and the available profits therefrom, and they set about getting control over it, monopolizing it to gradually increasing degrees.

So prior to the Gutenberg press, info flows were tightly controlled, but with the press's invention, info sharing erupted, and suddenly non-elites could read the Bible and other texts for themselves; the Reformation and a slew of other inventions and creative efforts ensued. Gradually, albeit through various ups and downs in variouos parts of the world, TPTB managed to monopolize most print and other media, to the point that by some time in the 2000's, 95% of all traditional media worldwide had come under the control of just 6 megacorporations.

Meanwhile, of course, the internet arose. Again, elites didn't immediately recognize the threat it posed to their hegemony, and we had another brief golden era of productive exchange of info and ideas; but elites soon leapt into action and are steadily gaining control over what we're able to see and share there.

A mini version of this pattern happened after the first consumer-grade, hand-held video cameras were invented, giving rise to a spurt of important citizen journalism as well as exciting new artistic creations; and of course, cell phones have had a somewhat similar effect.

As for the need for copyright and other protections for creators, I totally agree but would point out that while such laws are necessary, they've been extended to ridiculous, counter-productive durations. Also, even though the new techs may make copying easier, they've also made it easier for creators to sell directly to the public and avoid ceding exorbitant proportions of the rewards for their efforts to middlemen.

[sarisataka]

10. If the child is reading a screen they are reading

while I prefer old fashioned paper book, my wife reads all her stuff on a tablet.

Now if the discussion was about kids who cannot read at their grade level, or at all, but get passed along anyway- that is a different discussion.

[Raven]

16. I think whis is what I'm worried about. I know this is happening where I live. The kids are

getting passed along.

[meadowlander]

39. +1.

Also lots of kids read but it's things like fan fiction or discussion boards instead of what comes out of the traditional publishing industry.

While a lot of it is dreck, there's also a lot of work by authors who would never be published because the audience for works about queer, transgender, neurodivergent, asexual, etc. experience is so small. But kids are able to find works that better reflect those experiences for themselves whereas they can't really relate to "high literary fiction".

So I don't think it's totally a bad thing that publication has become democratized. As long as they are reading something it's a big help.

[SWBTATTReg]

18. What's going on here? Technology is what's going on here. A lot of things have moved onto the Internet,

eBooks, email, and online newspapers, blogs, vlogs, etc., as well as "e + everything else under the Sun".

Like the newspapers of old, becoming more and more obsolete day by day. And it will continue. But, there will be some that wish to have that 'paper copy' in hand, to read such news (I am that way). I mean, don't get me wrong, I don't reject the blogs and vlogs and all of that such, I just rather grab the paper version of the news and go grab my lunch in private at the restaurant while browsing it (or reading my book, paper copy only.

I haven't gone to reading books per say online, the news, yes (it's usually the only way you can get news), so a lot of this going strictly to online is profit-driven, that is, a company that owns 50 online newspapers will outsource 1 same article for all 50 of them. Rather lazy if you ask me.

[Timewas]

19. E- books

Had to give up paperbacks for several reasons, but e-books on 10inch tablet work great for me since I can make the text large enough to not have to strain to see. Plus overall storage. I read at least 3 a week,sometimes more.

[snot]

57. I think digital vs. hard copy books each have their own advantages

& disadvantages.

I love that e-texts can be enlarged, searched, easily copy/pasted, etc.

But I absorb or learn from/about a text much better if I can read and annotate a hard copy by hand; to that end, I often print out texts that were only available to me in digital form.

[ProfessorGAC]

23. It's Not Universal

Since I retired, I substitute teach at the Jr Hi & HS level. 15 or 16 different schools.
Especially at the JH level, I see kids reading books in study hall almost every time I sub.
And I can, off the top of my head, think of 5 schools that have a rewards/prize system where kids get credit for reading a book and providing a 1 page book report.
One school for example: a certain number of book points gets one a candy bar. Another level gets them included in a pizza party. Another level gets them lunch with the principal at Applebee's. The others are on that order, but not identucal.
So, while I understand your concern, you may take some solace in the fact that it's not everywhere
Oh, and these are BOOKS. Not online, not downloaded e-books.

[MineralMan]

24. As a 1963 high school graduate, I remember pretty well that about

15% of my fellow students read a lot. At least 50% read as little as they could possibly get away with. Maybe about 5% had trouble reading at all, though.

I doubt that has changed much. What has changed is how words are presented to us. Words on paper, either printed or hand-written are much more scarce than they were back then. Newspaper subscriptions are no longer a must in most households. We get our news on the TV screen or on digital screens.

The medium has changed, though, probably forever.

[xuplate]

25. Much ado

Reading something offa screen is still reading. Many, many children have learned
the alphabet and lots of words from watching shows like Sesame Street.

[Buckeyeblue]

26. Not that much different than when i was a kid

I was born in 1970. My observation is that there are a small minority of people who are readers. And then we have the rest of the people. I was a reader. None of my friends were. There were a million things to distract people from reading then. The distractions are just different today. But if you are the type who needs to read--and I think most readers need to read--you will set aside distractions and read a book.

[yellowdogintexas]

46. I was a reader from the time I was 5. My mom used to read to me when I wouldn't

go to sleep, and she read whatever she was reading at the time. I did the same with my daughter, who is a big reader too. She does Kindle and library books now rather that have books taking up space. Her daughter is a work in progress; even from a very young age, she did not want to be read to. she is getting better now that she is in the early stages of learning to reada.

My sisters were not readers when we were young, but my middle sister became an avid reader in her early 20s. Our younger sister never really got into reading but she married a serious reader and both their kids read voraciously

Most of my friends throughout my life have been readers. I think we are drawn to each other!

[Buckeyeblue]

65. My daughter is a reader. My son not so much

My wife isn't much of a reader but she pushes herself to read because she says she feels better when she reads.

[LudwigPastorius]

31. It's a matter of concentration, rather than the specific media that delivers information.

People (including myself) are losing the ability to read long-form works.

The internet gives dopamine hits for shorter and shorter bursts of attention, rewiring the brain.

[Iggo]

34. Maybe books are. But reading is reading.

[RockRaven]

35. Reading was once a privilege. Now reading, or rather NOT reading, is a choice.

Being able to read, and having abundant materials to read, is historically the exception of the human condition. Books are a recent invention, and until even more recently were expensive.

Now we have nearly infinite books or equivalents available at our fingertips for nearly free and people can't be bothered because there are flashy lights and loud noises to look at instead.

[bucolic_frolic]

36. For kids, privileges should be earned based on how many books you read

because that model will determine success in life. If you know nothing as the years roll by, you will get nowhere important.

[albacore]

38. "What is going on here?" Nothing big.....just the end of civilization. Sarcasm not intended.

If the ordinary person doesn't read, we end up with creatures like trump - who also doesn't read - running the world.
Meanwhile, people who do read will be trying to get us to accept vaccines and ignore YouTube videos about chemtrails."
Shit, we have that already!

[Raven]

64. Bingo! This is exactly what worries me. And I'm talking about reading to acquire knowledge, not just to

be entertained, although both can happen and often do.

[albacore]

72. Posts on social media....and even DU ... have to be short. Otherwise..."TLDR"..

It's hard to explain Middle East diplomacy or how vaccines work in a sentence or two.
I am NOT talking about people with dyslexia or like that, I'm talking people whose reading attention span is the length of a bumper sticker.

[FirstLight]

48. ...and I have a significant reading addiction... but I'm an "old" person @ 55

I learned to read by memorizing my favorite book, and when my sister left me alone one time to go set the table, I picked it up and made the words match the sounds and that was IT! The lightulb went off...and never stopped.
My dad had us keep flashlights by our beds for safety...and mine was always out of batteries cuz I'd read at night...

One kid got the reading bug, the other 2 are not into it.

Dunno how to make it easier to have your own imagination when the rest is just supplied....and now AI makes it even worse

[TBF]

50. Most people learn to read in public school -

not everyone - but the majority.

And think about what has happened to so many public schools across the country. They are underfunded, teachers are not paid well or respected in any other way, teaching to the tests has become the mantra in Texas, etc.

I grew up in a small town in Wisconsin. Our small elementary school had combined classrooms. I can assure you no one got out of Mrs. Bednarek's 1-2 room without being able to read. If they were really struggling, she turned them over to her SISTER, who was the special ed teacher in that little school. Somehow, they had the funding back in the 1970s for the testing to determine whether the child had some sort of learning disability - and they'd figure out how to help each kid. This was in the country with lots of farm and factory kids - not a fancy suburb.

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

52. brains developed post internet creation

[sagetea]

53. It's very true

I have nieces that raised their kids on iPads. I think kids will copy the behavior of the adults around them. I know in the rural west, they don't. Too much work to do on the farm/ranch, to read a book when there are so many different stimuli. Or so strung out they don't remember HOW to read

Gen Z got Harry Potter, Twilight, etc. which prompted book sales, because they made reading fun. Now, most kids haven't read those books, just watched the movies.

It's a damn shame, I'm telling ya!

sage

[Jilly_in_VA]

54. Reading is reading

whether you do it on a screen or in hard copy. It's easier to give my grandkids e-books now, and easier for their mom to clean up after them, too! Plus, it's easier for me to carry around a huge library of them on my tablet.

[Xolodno]

55. I read both book and screen.

Some books I keeps because I know I'll read them again, they are just that good (Lord of the Rings). Some books I buy and end up donating to the library. Others I just read off a screen (Art of War by Sun Tzu). The format you read is your choice. When I used to commute to work, I would often have an audio book.

[Rebl2]

60. The problem

is in school now, practically everything is done on line when it comes to school these days. There should be a mix of learning on line and learning from books. Kids need to learn both imo. I have an adult niece that teaches, and she is teaching her love of books to her daughter. It is one of my great nieces favorite things to do, go to the library and bookstore.

[Skittles]

68. so often this is what I see

parents glued to their phones, while their toddlers try in vain to get their attention

they are teaching by example

[Martin68]

70. Reading is not a privilege. Reading is a skill that takes years to develop. It helps if you grow up in a family where

books are plentiful and admired. I was reading by age 5 because of my parents and the surroundings in the homes we lived in. My Mom had to kick us out of the house because we wanted to stay inside and read. But we also developed a love of the outdoors because "it's a beautiful day outside - go outside and play." One thing I know, our culture will change in unimaginable ways if we stop reading for pleasure.

[0rganism]

71. lots of "reading a screen is just like reading a book" opinions, but this is not the case -- reflective vs projective

The eye seems to work a bit differently reading from a page. As one who has had to do a lot of both throughout my career, I have often struggled switching between the two quickly. Worse, the more time one spends with a projective screen, the harder it becomes to switch back to reading from a reflective page. These kids are spending a lot of time with projective screens.

[iemanja]

73. Smart phones are becoming a cancer on society

beyond the inability to read books, write, or think critically--which are all byproducts. People spend all their time peering at phones. On Christmas, my brother's entire family spent the entire day looking at their cell phones. It's anti-social and rude, but there seems to be no stopping it. It wasn't my house, so I couldn't demand phones be left at the door. If it were my house, I might have insisted.