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Teen reading slumps to worst this century due to surge in screen time

finance.yahoo.com

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Re: Teen reading slumps to worst this century due to surge in screen time

#11

Post by acadapter »

glimshe wrote: post #4

Every generation worries that the behaviors of the next will be the downfall of humanity. I wouldn't be surprised if the Greeks and Romans felt the same. I grew up reading and still do it today. But my teen kid, who's a great student, hates reading books. He knows many things but gets all his information from Discord chats, AI and social media videos (and his parents, but he ignores that). It does sound terrifying. "…

Greeks and Romans did experience a >99% loss of their literature during the medieval period...

Re: Teen reading slumps to worst this century due to surge in screen time

#12

Post by gjvc »

zug_zug wrote: post #5

Well for whatever it's worth, I feel like I understand why. At least when I was in school, nobody really made a very persuasive case for why reading was important (which I think it is) and I'd routinely get assigned books like Animal Farm or whatever and be told like "Spend X hours reading this thing and learn some profound lesson about life." And I'd just be like, "What? This book cannot prove anything, other than o…

Dunno why this is being downvoted. Animal Farm is a commentary / allegory on communism. Teaching it to young minds who have not experienced the difference between the realities of communism and the rest is a vanity at best.

Re: Teen reading slumps to worst this century due to surge in screen time

#15

Post by fnordsensei »

zug_zug wrote: post #10

For what it's worth, there seems to be no evidence that reading increases IQ. And it's kinda always struck me as slightly weird how proponents don't feel the need to gather evidence on the matter before making bold prescriptions for everybody else. 1. https://chatgpt.com/share/6aa158f6-b980-83e9-997e-e65be209f9...

I’m guessing that passing the tokens through the visual cortex doesn’t matter as much as how you engage with the content.

Re: Teen reading slumps to worst this century due to surge in screen time

#17

Post by hackyhacky »

zug_zug wrote: post #5

Well for whatever it's worth, I feel like I understand why. At least when I was in school, nobody really made a very persuasive case for why reading was important (which I think it is) and I'd routinely get assigned books like Animal Farm or whatever and be told like "Spend X hours reading this thing and learn some profound lesson about life." And I'd just be like, "What? This book cannot prove anything, other than o…

>This book cannot prove anything, other than one person's opinion on history

You've misunderstood the purpose.

Fiction was not ever intended to achieve scientific goals, i.e. to discover the truth about our universe. It's intended to be thought-provoking, i.e. to inspire questions about our universe.

You need the question before you can find the answer.

Re: Teen reading slumps to worst this century due to surge in screen time

#18

Post by john_strinlai »

i'm sure generic 'screen time' is partly to blame, but i think the world is just moving fast and the education system (alongside everything else) is struggling to keep up. the constant stream of negative news, layoffs because of AI, etc. also aren't doing anything to motivate kids.

many of my college students feel like they've already lost at life. between ai, the economy, job prospects, etc. i am sure high schoolers are feeling the same way, which certainly isn't going to make them more eager.

Re: Teen reading slumps to worst this century due to surge in screen time

#19

Post by pif »

glimshe wrote: post #4

Every generation worries that the behaviors of the next will be the downfall of humanity. I wouldn't be surprised if the Greeks and Romans felt the same. I grew up reading and still do it today. But my teen kid, who's a great student, hates reading books. He knows many things but gets all his information from Discord chats, AI and social media videos (and his parents, but he ignores that). It does sound terrifying. "…

> Discord chats, AI and social media videos

A.k.a: no trustable source.

Re: Teen reading slumps to worst this century due to surge in screen time

#20

Post by 2OEH8eoCRo0 »

stonogo wrote: post #16

Same category error as always. "Screen time" is meaningless noise. They could be spending eight hours a day in the Kindle app reading classics. A good-faith study would evaluate what the kids are doing, not the tools they're using to do it.

If they were addicted to their Kindles then why did their reading score drop?
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