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Reading for pleasure is sharply down among schoolkids, report shows

nbcnews.com

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Re: Reading for pleasure is sharply down among schoolkids, report shows

#341

Post by mensetmanusman »

dyauspitr wrote: post #176
larrik wrote: post #33

It's worse than this. I have kids in school. Our school system is one of the top in Connecticut, which is the quintessential "school" state (if any rich kid on TV goes away to school, it's probably to CT). These kids (all of them, not mine) can't really read. Not like when I was young. (I'm not even old! I graduated in the 2000's!) They certainly can't write. They have no stamina to do an essay or a test like when I…

Drop technology entirely and start failing them. You’ll never find an Asian school taking mercy on their kids.

This is why Asian countries are dying faster though.

Re: Reading for pleasure is sharply down among schoolkids, report shows

#342

Post by x1n13y84issmd42 »

Maybe I can share an anecdote from my childhood?

I was born in the 80s, in USSR, and learned reading at 3 y.o. thanks to my mom who would read stories to me constantly while I was sitting next to her, trying to figure those mysterious symbols out.

When I got to elementary school, one of the topics kids would discuss first is how old they were when they started reading, and it turns out that 3 y.o. readers were not rare at all, quite opposite - most of my classmates started reading around the ages of 3 & 5. And if someone admitted they didn't start reading by the age of 6, they would get concerned looks from us all, like "Are you even ok mate?". A couple of kids who went to school not being able to read on their own, write and count at least up to 100 struggled to study and were lagging behind.

And that wasn't the case of our parents trying to raise prodigies, that's just where the bar was at the time. Also lack of any kind of digital entertainment and 3 state TV channels.

Re: Reading for pleasure is sharply down among schoolkids, report shows

#343

Post by x1n13y84issmd42 »

NickC25 wrote: post #314
drob518 wrote: post #286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep, it’s a crisis. We’re raising kids that are illiterate and frankly just dumb. You ever watch those YouTube videos where they interview college kids (who were actually accepted to a college!) and they can’t correctly answer who fought in the US Civil War and other basic knowledge questions? They don’t know the difference between continents and countries (e.g. Europe and a country within Europe). They can’t tell yo…

Worse yet, these people can vote . And are completely susceptible to disinformation/misinformation campaigns.

Having the gullible herd like this is the whole point of modern democracy.

Re: Reading for pleasure is sharply down among schoolkids, report shows

#344

Post by asdff »

scorpioxy wrote: post #70
asdff wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you never read a good book you can't put down?

I can empathize with the commenter you're replying to. I still read for pleasure and have to read constantly for work of course. On some days, I feel like I can't. It is like exercising the same muscle every day which will lead to injury in a short amount of time. Switching to audiobooks or just taking a break does resolve that. From what I am seeing around me though, reading for pleasure or even to gain knowledge ha…

Except you don't get injured. You know what happens when I read a book at the end of the day after working all day? I fall asleep about 20 pages in, and sleep like a rock. You know what happens when I read HN at the end of the day after working all day? I'm up till 3am and getting 5 hours of rest. Same for any screen time really. People think screentime is some big rest but it isn't really.

Just rip the bandaid off. Get over the inertia of doing the task. You won't injure yourself reading a damn book.

Re: Reading for pleasure is sharply down among schoolkids, report shows

#345

Post by madaxe_again »

jrflo wrote: post #251
bcjdjsndon wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yet you're still sat writing mini essays to strangers because of the dopamine hit....

I think drugs is an apt analogy. Hackernews is like alcohol, it definitely can be addicting but generally most people dont have a problem with it. Short form video is like meth

Yup, HN is just my morning pint of wine.

Re: Reading for pleasure is sharply down among schoolkids, report shows

#346

Post by Multicomp »

RattlesnakeJake wrote: post #84
iaaan wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anecdotally, 2012 is when I got back in to reading for pleasure, as a 16-year-old. I had no friends though, and thought someone cute might see me reading and become interested in me. Prior to that, I stopped reading because video games were easy to get lost in endlessly. At the time, I recall I was probably playing a lot of League of Legends, TF2, Minecraft, and probably some others -- all of which I felt I could pre…

> ...someone cute might see me reading and become interested in me. Did it work? :)

We may never know!

Re: Reading for pleasure is sharply down among schoolkids, report shows

#347

Post by bcjdjsndon »

buellerbueller wrote: post #272
bcjdjsndon wrote: post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why can't you read from a screen instead? Why do all the benefits of reading seemingly disappear when read from a display screen?

every screen, even the majority of e-readers, now has advertising, which is designed to distract and incept.

.... So ban magazines yeah? They contain adverts, and in fact most local newspapers are FULL of ads because they can't sustain themselves otherwise.

Re: Reading for pleasure is sharply down among schoolkids, report shows

#348

Post by bcjdjsndon »

ayatollah wrote: post #281
bcjdjsndon wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Social media is a plague and will likely be looked on by the psychiatric/medical professional as extremely harmful in years to come. Not only will it not, autism will not last more than 25 years in it's current form. I bet money on both of those

Thanks for your input, I find this take intriguing. Could you elaborate on the link you see between social media and Autism?

No link, they're just two social semi-hysterias

Re: Reading for pleasure is sharply down among schoolkids, report shows

#349

Post by bcjdjsndon »

blahaj wrote: post #254
bcjdjsndon wrote: post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why can't you read from a screen instead? Why do all the benefits of reading seemingly disappear when read from a display screen?

Most screens have distractions just one tap away. Personally I also like the physics of a book a lot more for reading. Every book is a physically different object. You physically turn the page. You can physically see how far you are in the book. It's just all much less abstract and tangible.

> Most screens have distractions just one tap away.

What? I guess you mean the mobile and tablet world... And even then I'm pretty sure that's bullshit, there is surely a pdf viewer without adverts

Re: Reading for pleasure is sharply down among schoolkids, report shows

#350

Post by iaaan »

RattlesnakeJake wrote: post #84
iaaan wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anecdotally, 2012 is when I got back in to reading for pleasure, as a 16-year-old. I had no friends though, and thought someone cute might see me reading and become interested in me. Prior to that, I stopped reading because video games were easy to get lost in endlessly. At the time, I recall I was probably playing a lot of League of Legends, TF2, Minecraft, and probably some others -- all of which I felt I could pre…

> ...someone cute might see me reading and become interested in me. Did it work? :)

No it did not!
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