article in Washington post: "Kids reading less, and so am I"

[Connie Weber]

There's a "viewpoint" article in the Washington post called "Kids reading less, and so am I," with the subtitle "Librarian admits he's adapting to age of information overload, as well." The author is Thomas Washington.

The article is short, provocative, and related to other discussions that are going on here. A part of the article:

Educators or parents might start by framing the questions differently. Who isn't having trouble concentrating these days? Who doesn't find it nearly impossible to stick with a 450-page novel? I've come down with the same virus as the kids — the very group I criticize for ignoring the library's "new arrivals" book display.

The other night, for example, I stumbled over this paragraph in Milton Friedman's seminal 1962 tome Capitalism and Freedom: "The self-denying ordinance to refrain from majority rule on certain kinds of issues that is embodied in our Constitution and in similar written or unwritten constitutions elsewhere, and the specific provisions in these constitutions or their equivalents prohibiting coercion of individuals, are themselves to be regarded as reached by free discussion and as reflecting essential unanimity about means."

Years ago, I might have worked with Friedman's convolutions and tried to unspool the main idea. Today, I have neither the time nor the desire. Well, I probably do have time, but with so many other books by my bedside, queued like a fleet of 757s on a snowy runway, there's too much competition to endure such prose. I put Friedman down for good after page 30.

I witness a similar edginess from younger readers in the library. "How long is it?" has replaced "Will I like it?" The students' finicky inclinations, as well as my own recent hasty approach to reading, bothered me enough to try to trace the root cause. I suspect that the tipping point in information overload has tipped. Students' aversion to reading does not necessarily signal a weakness, much less a dislike of reading. For them, and now maybe for me, moving on to something else is an adaptive tactic for negotiating the jungle that is our information-besotted culture of verbiage.

A lot of Firesiders have been bringing this up, in one form or another.

"The pursuit of knowledge in the age of information overload is less about a process of acquisition than about proficiency in tossing stuff out. By necessity, we spend more time quickly scanning manuals, king-size novels, the blogosphere and poems in the New Yorker than we do scrutinizing their contents for deeper meaning."

What's your experience with what the author's talking about? Do you think about these issues in your or your students' lives?



(Have you seen the new RSS feed on the lower left of the main page? Found this article there. That's www.ednews.org , a fantastic roundup of world education news. If you click on "more" at the very bottom, it'll take you to that page as will the link I just posted here. You may find some more news you want to discuss. No, it's not informational overload but information richness, right?) ; )

[Skip Zilla]

I'm sure that being part of a "smart mob" provides political advantages for one's career or activism, but is it what I value most for myself and my culture? The overhead in keeping from lagging behind the flocking behavior is much too expensive for me personally. Anyhow, I can't remember the last time I thought first of where I might stand among others by what book I might read or shirt I might wear--much too other directed for me. I listen, sometimes deeply, to what others say or write, but I, like everyone else, am a remarkably gifted being in my own right when not super distracted by trying to be smart with the mob.

[Laura Gibbs]

Haste is definitely an issue with my students, and they much prefer reading a short story to something longer - but I don't think it's an information overload issue - it's a life overload: they work full time, have kids at home AND go to school full-time. The world of computers, blogs, etc. has very little to do with their hastiness - it's a clock thing.

Now perhaps the idea that it is fair/reasonable/good to try to work full time, raise kids and go to school fulltime is a development that parallels the information overload - I can definitely imagine a zeitgeist that produces information overload AND life overload as similar manifestations of the same kind of "overload-izing" so to speak. Personally, I think it's a pretty terrible thing that they are doing, since as a result of having literally no time left for school, the students trying to accomplish this end up with a degree but often not much of an education (or else neglecting other even more important things in the name of school).

As for reading in particular, it obviously varies - look at the monstrously large Harry Potter books. I couldn't read a monstrously large book of Milton Friedman's prose... but fantasy, fiction, etc. - sure! I'm reading Diana Gabaldon's Outlander right now - it's huge, but a complete page-turner as they say (even though I am listening to it as an audio book - what's the equivalent of a "page-turned" in the digital audio world, eh?)

So, yes, I do worry about the haste problem and superficiality of the work that my students do, but I think I am going to blame the "have it all" approach to life rather than anything especially having to do with the Internet! :-)

[Nathan Lowell]

First Rule: Always check primary sources. The NEA study is available online.

The NEA study is not about *reading* -- it's about "reading for pleasure" -- moreover, it's about reading a BOOK for pleasure. There are a few general questions about "reading for pleasure" in the study but I have to wonder how that question was presented -- and whether the context of the presentation caused a bias toward books on the part of the respondents. It's dependent on self report as well. One has to ask whether the data reported in the study are even accurate. Did you ever ask your kid what they did in school today?

The article itself is largely inoffensive - other than the "sky is falling" title is going to confirm the crisis in the minds of people who don't actually read the article. I'm not sure what the purpose of the piece actually IS - since, by the logic of the author's own construction, most people won't get beyond the first paragraph. If he's offering a defense of current reading practice, then he's dropped the ball. If he's refuting the study, his case seems a bit weak.

The NEA study is interesting from an academic standpoint. I think it's suspiciously restrictive in the questions and fails to really address any kind of foundational issues - the moral equivalent of "when did you stop beating your wife?"

Do I think about this kind of thing in relation to my students? No, but my students are teachers - mostly. Do I think about this in relation to my kids? Nope. In my own life, a 450 page novel is just getting interesting. I had to give up on short stories. They just can't sustain me. By the time I get into the story, it's already over. In the last week I've read two novels. In the last month, something like eight or ten (I'm not really sure). In addition to the posts, emails, and texts required for my work.

Oh, and in addition to the podcast novels - I've got about 5 of those going now. I know that's not reading, but it IS narrative and fills in when my eyes and hands have to be busy with something else.

So, ya. Non-issue for me. Your mileage may vary.

[Penelope Millar]

Nathan, I'm like you. Always in the middle of a book, hopefully part of series so it won't end just when I get addicted and usually in the middle of an audiobook or two as well.

I don't read as much as I did as a kid, but that's because as a kid I was a loner who pretty much did nothing but read (until high school, anyway). So, no more 100 book summers for me, sure, but I still get a good 75 books in a year. Yes, mostly fiction. Reading is pleasure for me, and rarely is reading a non-fiction book pleasure. I spend so much time essentially doing research for my lesson planning (mostly among the primary sources, but also among shorter secondary and tertiary works) that I have no interest in non-fiction left over.

My students...well, I know some of them don't read much. There's others, though, that I see carrying around books everywhere and reading them when they have a spare moment. This isn't that different than when I was in high school. If anything, I think overall high school students are reading more, it's just not as much about books.

[Linda]

This seems like an old argument to me. I vividly remember the excitement of finding Kon Tiki on the shelves of my school library. Although it was, and is, a fascinating tale, my first draw to it was that they numbered the many, many pages of photographs. This meant I could read less while getting full credit for reading whatever the number of pages. I was a good reader, loved reading, couldn't be kept from reading, but I still looked at such things.

My experience as a K-8 librarian is that some kids look for the shortest book allowed for their reading while others want the bragging rights fo reading the fattest book around. (The Invention of Hugo Cabret gives them the best of both worlds ;-) ) Few of our students want to read short stories. If the novel or the non-fiction hooks them, they read it, whatever the length. That seems to be how it is for me as well. If it is good, I will read 500+ pages and savor every word. If it does not appeal to me, 15 pages can be more than I can handle.

An aside that this brought to mind: Nancy Pearl, of Book Lust fame, gives the rule of 50. Read 50 pages of a book and then drop it if you are not grabbed by it. After the age of 50, subtract your age from 100 and read that many pages. Life is short, don't waste it reading things you don't like--unless required for a class or reading group.

[Steve Hargadon]

I've been thinking about this so much lately. The fact of the matter is, I'm reading much more than I ever used to--and I've always been a book lover. But so much of my reading now is not from books, but from the web. I read Wikipedia articles at least once or twice a day. I read news stories much more than when I subscribed to a physical paper. And that's not counting the time I now spend *listening* to books and talks and podcasts.

I'm not saying that the younger generation is methodically trading web reading for book reading, or that we can draw from my experiences any positive conclusions about the state of youth reading from my adult experiences, but I will say that if we narrowly define reading in terms of what it has traditionally meant, we may be missing something amazing which is going on. Reading, writing, thinking, contributing, collaborating are all tied up together, and my intellectual experiences have definitely been positively impacted by the new technologies of the Internet. My life as a "learner" is significantly richer, even if I am reading fewer books.

[Vincent Mespoulet]

of course, you're right Steve, Internet help us to read more, even if i read many and many books (real books AND online books...)... But don't you think that Wikipedia is also a danger if younger generations just read wikipedia (in France, we have a great debate about heavy mistakes and ideological viewpoints in Wikipedia's contents...). Wikipedia is a western Weltanschaung, not a global encyclopedia...)

[Steve Hargadon]

I have to agree, there is a difference between my reading Wikipedia and how my kids read it. I read it with the understanding of where the information comes from, and how it is created. But I also have to give my kids some credit, since they live in world of user-generated content, they are much less likely to accept as authoritative anything they read on the web.

Wikipedia has an amazing amount of information on topics that previously there just wasn't anyplace to go to find information on. It's not perfect, and will go through many of its own changes, I imagine. But I do find the amount of information amazing.

[Vincent Mespoulet]

I agree with you, Wikipedia is great but we need to help our students to examine contents with a critical eye. I teach history and i'm specialized in problematic topics: when you worked about Auschwitz a few years ago, the first sites on google (or earlier altavista and so on) were negationnist and racist sites... Pupils who work alone without the help of teachers to learn to be vigilant could easily think that Hitler was a nice guy... And when they read articles of wikipedia about Israel and Palestine conflict, or about colonialism (articles about war of independence of algeria are quite surprising for example) , they have not this critical eye. I'm worried about it...

[Connie Weber]

Hi Steve,

I think I'm reading more overall, both books and online. I'm on a "learning binge" which was greatly intensified from participation in networks like this--so many interesting references. I'm more comfortable with the state of mind I'm in; used to fairly often be on the edge of "overwhelm" which wasn't all that pleasant a feeling.

It was actually one of the comments that you made on CR2.0 when you talked about a huge library of biographies, actual books on huge and beckoning shelves... Then you said that although you liked the idea of reading them all, you realized it just "ain't going to happen." And didn't need to.

Something about that comment you made made me think ohho--yes, it's not about always harvesting, harvesting, harvesting, reading, reading, reading; it's about the choosing. Time is limited. That's a fact. I have less of a panicked feeling about the wealth of information available, and more of a sense of simmering with what's good. I've been like a kid in a candy shop; now I'm starting to settle down and taste things more. And overall, I'm reading more, all sorts of things, and with a recently established more settled feeling. There was an adjustment period! (By the say, what I'm saying goes with Linda's comment, and also with what Ian has said at other times--)

Thanks for the comment, Steve. I'm trying to sort this reading thing through as well.

[Sue Palmer]

I am also reading much more than I have in the past, and surprisingly, it is both online and in print. The web has become the springboard for my book selection as I am usually intrigued with something I have read or listened to online which sparks my interest.

My students, however, are reading a great deal online. Interestingly, we just put our textbook online for student access at home, etc. I have been watching them reading the text both in the book and on the web, and they seem to prefer the computer. I have many students who will read for a full study hall period online and would never pick up a book for that period of time. I think it is a factor of interest, but I do believe that the computer screen keeps them more focused. I would love to see a study on this at some point. I believe the screen helps students with attention issues!

[Connie Weber]

Hi Sue,
Thanks for your comments. We are going through a similar experience; I, too read more (on AND offline) and feel inspired to go farther with my learning because so many interesting people are sharing so many interesting ideas. I like how you said "the web has become my springboard."

Lately, I've been thinking about this: The students seem to manage "life online" differently than we do. Maybe that's way too much of a generalization, but I have an example close to home. I'm amazed at what my daughter is doing during a college lecture class: she has the internet open so she can cross-reference anything the professor is talking about; she has her VERY elaborate note-taking program up, and is working rapidly away on getting the whole lecture down, working with the program to create beautiful outlines that evolve as the talk grows; she switches to whatever format of topic note portrayal seems to work best; she hyperlinks within her notes the internet cross-references that are mentioned or that she found during the talk; and she has up a window for talk with a friend across the lecture hall, they asked each other things like "Did you get that word? What's he talking about?"). Can you imagine going through a class doing all this?

I think it makes for some really powerful learning.

A big bonus is that all of the notes are searchable afterwards--and hyperlinked. It's like she's building up an interactive knowledge bank.

This makes me think that students can take in so much online; they can manage it very well. I am betting that many young people are reading more today than is being measured. One corroborating piece of evidence is that when students in my class get their own computers their reading skills take a jump. This is particularly true for students who were having issues with reading, or seemed uninvolved.