Mark_Bauerlein: Today, only 43 percent of 18-24-year-olds every reads a novel, short story, poem, or play on her own. That's down from 60 percent in 1982.
Mark_Bauerlein: In 1984, only 9 percent of high school seniors NEVER read for fun. By 2004, that number had more than doubled (19 percent).
Mark_Bauerlein: If voluntary reading is a sign of intellectual curiosity, your generation is a lapse. As an avid reader, your an exception to the general rule.
I think it's sad that these numbers are decreasing over time. With all the information we have at our hands, these numbers should be going up! We may be a technology crazed generation, but that doesn't mean we have to stop reading and learning."Bauerlein acknowledges that 'kids these days are just as smart and motivated as ever.' If they're also 'the dumbest' because they have 'more diversions' and because 'screen activity trumps old-fashioned reading materials'—well, choices can change, with maturity, with different reward structures, with changes in the world their elders make. Writing off any generation before it's 30 is what's dumb." I agree completely with this quote from the article because hopefully things do change as we mature and we stop playing videogames and letting technology do everything for us.
I agree completely with what you wrote. It is pathetic that kids do not know the significance of the 'colored entrance' sign. It does make our generation dumb, but writing us off before we are 30 is also dumb, because with age comes maturity and hopefully our generation matures and does not stay the dumbest generation.
ReplyDeleteOur generation may seem immature or not knowledgeable about certain stuff, but we are still kids. Eventually we are going to mature and appear to me be knowledgeable about certain things. However, we need to know our historical facts, especially about our cultures history
ReplyDeleteI think the lack of reading in today's society is an issue with people not knowing what they want to read. I know for me at least it's hard to find a topic that interests me. Also, with the speed of today's society it's easier just to watch a movie that takes 2 hours as opposed to reading a book which could take at least a week depending on how fast you read.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what you said. Not knowing some important historical facts does look bad on our part, however, to say that anyone under thirty should be written off is ridiculous. We just need to be given a chance to mature.
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