Neopets, MSN, and Gameboy...Too Many Technologies...Too Little Time!
Not only do we have the issue of reading skills degenerating, but there is also the concern that children are simply reading less overall because of the distractions of technology – email, Internet, MSN, electronic hand held games, CD-ROM games, Playstations, GameCubes, X-Box, and the list will likely continue to grow as time goes on. This point could be argued with more certainty simply because there isn’t a similar example in history that can compare with the barrage of new technologies, distractions, and stimulations that children now have.
One can deduce with a fair bit of certainty that children are spending more time with various forms of electronic media now than 5 to 10 years ago. The Kaiser Family Foundation is a U.S.-based organization that created a report in 2005 entitled Generation M: Media in the Lives of 8-18 Year Olds. Some key statistics from their 2005 report are:
86% of children 8-18 years of age have a computer at home.
74% of these children have Internet access.
22% go online for one hour or more per day.
These percentages have risen substantially since Kaiser’s first study in 1999, but appear to be less than statistics gathered for the report, “Young Canadians in a Wired World”, which states that 94% of children have Internet access at home.
What about reading? How much are children still reading? The Kaiser Report is fairly encouraging, stating that nearly 3 out of 4 (73%) of children 8-18 years of age spend approximately 43 minutes per day reading for pleasure. However, the study did find that those students with higher grades (A’s and B’s) spent less time on video games and more time reading than those students with grades of C’s and D’s.
“Young Canadians in a Wired World” discovered that the average young person is spending over an hour a day instant messaging (talking to their friends and/or family online). However, can one state with reasonable certainty that if the Internet did not exist that this time would be spent reading? Or did youth simply find other recreational activities (playing outside with friends, talking on the phone, watching TV, listening to music) to fill their time?
- DISCUSSION QUESTION:
Reading at Risk has statistics that prove grade school and high school students (and indeed all age groups) are reading less than they did 20 years ago. Do you believe this is a result of the distractions of the Internet (and its related activities like email and chat) and electronic games? What other reasons might there be?
posted by N James at 7:40 PM
13 Comments:
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yup...
Too many technologies, too many opportunities &/or responsibilities, too many things to buy, too many books(!), too much advice on how to live your life... it appears that Western culture is simply one of excess.
hmmm, that's quite a place to arrive having started wtih "The future of books in the digital age"!!
Do children nowadays spend less time reading, or do fewer children read than years ago? I think neither is the case. Those children, who were not big readers years ago, still exist,but there are new technologies that were not available then that may interest them now. Those children who have responsibilities and can't find time to read existed years ago as well.
Years ago adolescents spent hours and hours on the phone where now they can use msn or variations such as text messaging (you need to be able to read or at least decipher code)!
Spending time on the Internet involves reading also. But reading books? Those who enjoy reading will read. I read very little as a youngster compared to now. Those that discover the pleasure that reading can bring will find time to read in this age too.
My brother is one of those techie geeks who loves his video games and online games and whatever else that will keep him in front of a computer for hours. He is your classic reluctant reader. You can't get him to crack open a book to read for more than 10 minutes before he loses interest. He then found himself immersed in anime on the internet which then hooked him into managa and graphic novels and now he reads!!! :o) Maybe there's hope for him after all.
I think that the rushed pace of today's lifestyle is the major culprit. Mommy can't read you a bedtime story because she has to finish this report for work tomorrow. Daddy can't read you an article from the paper because he has to go to work. People are multitasking more and more these days, but reading is not something that integrates well into a multitasking scheme. Parents have over-scheduled their children, going from dance to soccer to gymnastics to hockey to basketball multiple times a week. Some children barely havbe enough time to get their homework done and eat a decent supper, let alone read. Also, today's children do have more adult responsibilities, becuase Mommy and Daddy are too busy. I think that if parents can slow down and take the time to read to their children and let their kids have time to play outside (away from the computer!), the children will pick up on those lessons.
Everybody wants a wonder-child, and parents rarely give their children time to be children any more. When are they supposed to have time to read? last year I boarded with a family who had a 12-yr old daughter. Her parents forced her to read for an hour before bed each night, but there was no time otherwise. they were always running. School. Choir. Soccer. Church functions. They were so busy watching them made me tired. It's no wonder kids have short attention spans these days-they're always being rushed from one activity to another. The Internet is not the only culprit, though it might play a decent part.
Yes the average reading amount has dropped in the last few years, but those statistics are based on standard reading material rather than alternatives. Technologies are taking over many entertainment fields, but that does not mean reading is forgotten. Everyone who has had to read instructions to continue a game or keeps up with a blog or has had to pay attention to a electronic pet knows how much reading is involved. So realistically it is not the lack of reading that is the issue, but the quality of what is being read.
I think one of the reasons why there is less reading is that there are alternative ways of getting at a book without actually reading it: such as a movie made from a book. You understand the story so why would you read it? I would think that only a person who likes to read or wanted to know more beyond what the movie provided would want to read the book after seeing the movie version of it.
Jean
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