Doug Johnson

The Decline of Reading
Head for the Edge
October 2006

Literary reading is on the decline, as we’ve known for sometime. The National Endowment for the Arts in its 2004 Reading at Risk report <www.arts.gov/pub/readingatrisk.pdf> had these distressing conclusions:

• The percentage of adult Americans reading literature has dropped dramatically over the past 20 years. Fewer than half of adult Americans now read literature.
• The decline in literary reading parallels a decline in total book reading and that rate is accelerating.  
• The steepest decline in literary reading is in the youngest age groups. …young adults have declined from being those most likely to read literature to those least likely.

Why?. Could it be:

• … “Even the most intensive users of newspapers and magazines spend less time reading these publications than they do online or watching TV,” Jupiter Research, January 2006
• …time spent on the Internet appears to come at the expense of time spent on social activities, hobbies, reading and TV viewing.” IT & Society, Fall 2002.
• …the average American child lives in a household with 2.9 televisions, 1.8 VCRs, 3.1 radios, 2.1 CD players, 1.4 video game players, and 1 computer. NEA, 2004
• Four out of ten American adults turn to video games as their primary source of entertainment. Associated Press, May, 08, 2006
• SparkNotes lets students download its short literature and content area study guides onto their cell phones or iPods so that they can read or listen to lessons. <www.sparknotes.com>

But is a decline in “literary reading” the same as “a decline in reading?” And is this problem?

A not unusual chain of events happened one evening not long ago as I was checking my RSS feed aggregator (Bloglines) just before going to bed. (Hey, does that sound high tech or what?)

1. I read Will Richardson’s Weblogg–ed blog entry that…
2. Referenced David Weinberger’s Jo-Ho blog that I read that …
3. Referenced Karen Schneider’s Free Range Librarian blog that I read that…
4. Linked to an article she wrote for Library Journal on blogging ethics that I read that referenced…
5. “A Bloggers’ Code of Ethics” on CYBERJOURNALIST.NET  and to Michael Stephen’s Tame the Web blog and his “The Library Blogger’s Personal Protocols.” Both of which I read.

My five-minute check turned into 45 minutes reading and my wife asking “What are you doing on the computer? Having cybersex?” This was 45 minutes I would have otherwise spent reading Ray Kurzweil’s probably important book The Singularity is Near.

It’s starting to feel that I can exercise about the same degree of control over spontaneous online reading that I have over my caramel corn consumption – I can’t stop once I’ve started. And I am seriously wondering how my own personal reading time is best spent – snacking on blogs or feasting on books when I have time to do but one or the other.

I’m pretty sure that reading a serious book is good for me. A thick book certainly makes me look smart when I carry it about. There is a genuine sense of accomplishment when I finish such a tome, much like a fourth grader completing a Harry Potter.

On the other hand, by blogging around that night, I stumbled on a relevant, important topic (blogging ethics), and after reading three short articles, I now probably know more about the topic than 95% of the rest of the blogging world– which I am quite sure qualifies me as an expert. Oh, and the knowledge gained will immediately guide my practice.

Alexander Pope wrote:

A little learning is a dang’rous thing;
Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring:
There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,
And drinking largely sobers us again.

Is “a little learning” more important in a fast-paced world than “drinking deep?” Would Pope now have to write A little learning is a ness’ry thing? And just why would one want to be sober anyway, Mr. Pope?

Blogs of course are not the only source of “a little learning.” Professor Naomi Baron worries: “Will effortless random access [to snippets of books made available through Google Book Search] erode our collective respect for writing as a logical, linear process? Such respect matters because it undergirds modern education, which is premised on thought, evidence and analysis rather than memorization and dogma. Reading successive pages and chapters teaches us how to follow a sustained line of reasoning.” (Los Angles Times Nov 28, 2005) Gulp!

What exactly is our role as library media specialists when it comes to “book” reading – fight the tide or go with the flow? Is reading reading or should only reading books be valued?