Why Do American Kids Hate Books?
A recent ComputerWorld article by Mike Elgan–Will Cell Phones Save Books?–provides some thought-provoking ideas about the general decline of reading in the United States. Elgan quotes a recent article from the New Yorker magazine:
Americans are losing not just the will to read but even the ability. According to the Department of Education, between 1992 and 2003 the average adult’s skill in reading prose slipped one point on a 500-point scale, and the proportion who were proficient — capable of such tasks as “comparing viewpoints in two editorials” — declined from 15% to 13.
Why is this? An article referenced by Elgan–Is A New Dark Age At Hand?–suggests that the process began long before the Internet and the World Wide Web conditioned us to brief explanations, sound bites and video clips. Radio and television began the process; politicians and marketeers exacerbated it, and the Web has made it even easier to avoid the need to read to get information.
So, is the lack of interest in reading a result of technology? If that were the case, you’d expect that the more technology a society has available to it, the less interest there would be in reading. Most countries are experiencing the same decline in reading as the United States, except for one of the most technologically advanced countries in the world–Japan. But why?
It turns out that cell phone novels are very popular in Japan. Cell phone novels are composed on cell phones, downloaded to other cell phones, and read on cell phones. Everyone in Japan has a cell phone, so a potential good read is always with you. Who writes them? Everyone, apparently. The No. 5 best-selling print book in Japan last year, according to the Times, was written first on a cell phone by a girl during her senior year in high school. Mainstream publishers are courting cell phone authors due to the immense popularity of their works.
Elgan believes this is why reading remains a popular activity in Japan. It’s interactive. You’re not simply a consumer of mass media controlled by a few publishing houses trying to make as much money as they can. You can easily choose what you want to read and, more importantly, you can contribute your own work to the system. If you’re a good writer, you’ll probably find an audience. Additionally, you will understand the process of creating literature and what makes good and bad literature.
Switch back to the US for a minute. How do we teach children to love reading? Assign them all the same novel? Make them write a book report? Take a test on the contents?
Could we do it any worse?
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