Does Our Generation Still Read ?
Cardinal
Points: 4.27.2018
by Tracey Fox
 |
Richard
Steele, a famous author in the 17th century once said, “Reading is to the mind
is what exercise is to the body.”
But
is that true today? It seems like fewer kids are reading. I haven’t read a book
fully through since early high school.
After
asking 50 students on Plattsburgh campus if they still read, 85 percent said
no. When asked why they don’t read one student, Bryan Kilpatrick told me that
it’s because he can’t focus on reading long enough to enjoy the book.
I
think that is due to technology. Technology was introduced to us as children
and is prominent in our society. All of this technology has caused us to lose
our attention span for reading books.
Another
reason our generation might not be reading is that we don’t have many important
figures telling us that reading is important.
For
example, Donald Trump is the first president who doesn’t actively read. He
hasn’t read the previous autobiography’s of old presidents that new presidents
read to understand what is going to be like as the leader of our country.
Even
though Donald Trump might not be the most popular president, we are supposed to
look up to him, and he does impacts us even if he doesn’t realize it.
It’s
not just our president. Celebrities are too focused on promoting their social
media status to care about other important things like reading and education.
Out of all people, they should be the ones to advocate for reading because half
of them write books about themselves anyway.
Our
society has put reading on the back burner. In an article in The Conversation,
the author, Debra
Kachel, talks about how libraries in schools are disappearing. “The number
of school libraries in New York City has dropped from nearly 1,500 to 2005 to
around 700 in 2014,” Kachel said. Another mind-blowing statistic mentioned in
the article was the 1 to 7,000 librarians-to-students ratio in California. This
is the lowest ratio in America. READ
MORE >>
General
America’s Most Literate Cities, CCSU
2016: Book Reading 2016, Pew
2013: Remodeling Literacy
Learning, Natl Center for
Literacy Education (NCLE)
2012: Improving Adult Literacy Instruction:
Options Practice Research, NAS
2007: To Read Not To Read, NEA
2004: Reading At Risk, NEA
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