Do America's Reading Habits Explain Today's Lack of Clear
Thinking?
Intellectual
Takeout: 7.02.2018
by Annie Holmquist
Ah!
It’s a lovely Friday evening. You’ve had a successful work week and now it’s
time to have some quiet relaxation. You have a book on the coffee table you’ve
been wanting to delve into – but first, a quick glance at social media is in
order.
Several
hours and several videos later, you realize it’s time to head for bed, which
you do, hating yourself all the way for having wasted the little time you had
to exercise your mind through reading.
I’ll
be the first to raise my hand and confess to having done the above – more times
than I care to admit. And unless I miss my guess, I’m not alone in this folly.
I
make this claim based not only on the knowledge of human nature, but also on a recent
report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Released annually, the American
Time Use Survey breaks down the way Americans spend their hours,
particularly those hours devoted to free time.
Of
the hours devoted to free time, one area in particular is
rather shortchanged. That area is reading.
Overall,
Americans only spend 17 minutes per day in reading activities. As The
Washington Post explains, this number has dropped six minutes since 2004.
Broken down by age range, those in the millennial generation read the least,
averaging seven minutes a day. Those in the 75 and older age range average 51
minutes per day. 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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