E-Literacy vs. The Bibliophiles
From Internet: Knowledge and Community
- HOYLE HODGES
- INTERNET: Knowledge and Community
- Response for 13 Oct 2010
- E-Literacy vs. the Bibliophiles
“When I step in school, I feel like I’m not me anymore. I have to jump into this old-fashioned thing where everything is restricted” (see Gewertz) The author has complied a truly astounding list of numbers and facts from various sources that report on and show the decline in reading by young Americans. National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE), Kaiser Family Foundation Program for the Study of Entertainment Media and Health, American Time Use Survey, Bureau of Labor Statistics (ATUS), Survey of Public Participation in the Arts, National Endowment for the Arts (SPPA), and others. The author goes to great lengths to decry the lack of reading by young people, linking lack of reading, declining math skills and non participation in the so called fine arts as the reason for the decline in American competiveness on the world stage. I disagree with most of the authors findings, young people know how to read, and they read a lot. In fact I believe they read more than the previous generation. They just aren’t reading classic literature like the previous generations. Life moves at too quick a pace for the ambitious teenager to stop and read entire books from past centuries that have little to no value in the context of today’s society. The author briefly describes an idea called e-literacy, to understand this concept just go to Twitter or any other new media site. You will see that young Americans are reading more than previous generations just in a different way.
