Dawn of the digital natives

18 Jul 13

Pete Perez

learning literacy effects statistics digitalnatives

The NEA makes a convincing case that both kids and adults are reading fewer books. "Non-required" reading - ie, picking up a book for the fun of it - is down 7% since 1992 for all adults, and 12% for 18-24 year olds

17 Jul 13

Chantel Topper

There is room for a lot of improvement for schools and teachers to include Media Literacy into their programs

Becoming media literate is essential because it is a part of everday lives as the media industries grows.

Comparable non-events appear when you look at prose literacy levels in the adult population: in 1992, 43% of Americans read at an intermediate level; by 2003 the number was slightly higher at 44%. "Proficient" readers dropped slightly, from 15% to 13%. In other words, the distribution is basically unchanged - despite the vast influx of non-native English speakers into the US population during this period.
And of course we are writing more, and writing in public for strangers: novel readers may have declined by 10%, but the number of bloggers has gone from zero to 25 million. Simply excising screen-based reading from the study altogether is like doing a literacy survey circa 1500 and only counting the amount of time people spent reading scrolls.
Screen shift
The problem with both arguments is that they're fundamentally rehashing the technological opposition of the television age, the kind of opposition that McLuhan wrote about so powerfully back in the 1960s: word versus image, text versus screen. But that long-term decline towards a pure society of image has been reversed by the rise of digital media. What separates the Google generation from postwar generations is the shift from largely image-based passive media to largely text-based interactive media.
We don't know exactly how that will play out in the long run, but thus far, when you look at the demographic patterns of the Google generation, there is not only no cause for alarm: in fact, there's genuine cause for celebration. The twentysomethings in the US - the ones who spent their childhood years engaged with computers and not zoning out in front of the TV - are the least violent, the most politically engaged and the most entrepreneurial since the dawn of the television era.
But if you listen to the NEA, we are perched on the edge of a general meltdown: "The general decline in reading is not merely a cultural issue, though it has enormous consequences for literature and the other arts. It is a serious national problem." A serious national problem with no apparent data to support it. Perhaps the scholars at the NEA should put down their novels and take some statistics classes?

1 more annotation...

David Parra-Newton

The NEA makes a convincing case that both kids and adults are reading fewer books. "Non-required" reading - ie, picking up a book for the fun of it - is down 7% since 1992 for all adults, and 12% for 18-24 year olds.
Comparable non-events appear when you look at prose literacy levels in the adult population: in 1992, 43% of Americans read at an intermediate level; by 2003 the number was slightly higher at 44%. "Proficient" readers dropped slightly, from 15% to 13%. In other words, the distribution is basically unchanged - despite the vast influx of non-native English speakers into the US population during this period

12 Jun 13

Nicole Fisher

reading literacy education technology research trends books digitalnatives

Jonathan Smith

Decline in Reading Native Digital

<div id="header"><div id="zones-nav"><div xmlns:v="http://rdf.data-vocabulary.org/#" data-component="Article:crumb nav" class="trackable-component crumb-wrapper"> <ul class="crumb-nav"> <li id="crumb1"> <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.guardiannews.com" data-link-name="News" property="v:title" rel="v:url">News</a> </li> <li id="crumb2"> <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology" data-link-name="Technology" property="v:title" rel="v:url">Technology</a> </li> <li id="crumb3"> <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/internet" data-link-name="Internet" property="v:title" rel="v:url">Internet</a> </li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> <div id="box"> <div id="article-header"> <div id="badge-medium"> <h2> <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/education"> <img width="620" height="120" class="image-badge" alt="Books badge" src="http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2012/11/21/1353498625234/books_620x120.jpg"> </a> </h2> <div id="Frame2" class=" hide-on-popup"> <a rel="nofollow" href="http://oas.guardian.co.uk/5c/www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/feb/07/internet.literacy/oas.html/1544808861/Frame2/default/empty.gif/52444a756a6c47346b4c4d414236596a?x" target="_top"><img width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" src="http://imageceu1.247realmedia.com/0/default/empty.gif"></a> </div> </div> <div id="main-article-info"> <h1 itemprop="name headline ">Dawn of the digital natives</h1> If you believe a scary US report, reading is on the decline. But, says Steven Johnson, it completely fails to consider the amount that we do every day on our computers </div> <ul data-component="Article:top share tools" id="content-actions" class="share-links trackable-component"> <li class="full-line facebook"> <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.facebook.com/dialog/feed?app_id=180444840287&link=http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/feb/07/internet.literacy&display=popup&redirect_uri=http://static-serve.appspot.com/static/facebook-share/callback.html&show_error=false&ref=desktop" data-link-name="Facebook Share" class="facebook-share-btn" data-href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/feb/07/internet.literacy"> Share </a>14 </li> <li class="full-line"> <iframe style="width: 109px; height: 20px;" scrolling="no" class="twitter-share-button twitter-count-horizontal" data-twttr-rendered="true" frameborder="0" title="Twitter Tweet Button" allowtransparency="true" src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets/tweet_button.1370380126.html#_=1371050167058&count=horizontal&counturl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.guardian.co.uk%2Ftechnology%2F2008%2Ffeb%2F07%2Finternet.literacy&id=twitter-widget-0&lang=en&original_referer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.guardian.co.uk%2Ftechnology%2F2008%2Ffeb%2F07%2Finternet.literacy&related=guardiantech&size=m&text=Dawn%20of%20the%20digital%20natives%20-%20is%20reading%20declining%3F&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgu.com%2Fp%2Fx3vx9%2Ftw&via=guardian"></iframe> </li> <li data-link-name="Google plus" class="full-line google-plus"> <div style="text-indent: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent; border-style: none; float: none; line-height: normal; font-size: 1px; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline-block; width: 90px; height: 20px;" id="___plusone_0"><iframe style="position: static; top: 0px; width: 90px; margin: 0px; border-style: none; left: 0px; visibility: visible; height: 20px;" name="I0_1371050163984" width="100%" scrolling="no" tabindex="0" id="I0_1371050163984" data-gapiattached="true" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" vspace="0" hspace="0" marginwidth="0" title="+1" allowtransparency="true" src="https://apis.google.com/_/+1/fastbutton?bsv&size=medium&hl=en-GB&origin=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.guardian.co.uk&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.guardian.co.uk%2Ftechnology%2F2008%2Ffeb%2F07%2Finternet.literacy&jsh=m%3B%2F_%2Fscs%2Fapps-static%2F_%2Fjs%2Fk%3Doz.gapi.en.qoJGBs_aHO8.O%2Fm%3D__features__%2Fam%3DEQ%2Frt%3Dj%2Fd%3D1%2Frs%3DAItRSTPeL8sWcOLQhWx6-E-I29Pz7TIAPg#_methods=onPlusOne%2C_ready%2C_close%2C_open%2C_resizeMe%2C_renderstart%2Concircled%2Conload&id=I0_1371050163984&parent=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.guardian.co.uk&rpctoken=11901321"></iframe></div> </li> <li data-link-name="LinkedIn" class="full-line linked-in"> <a rel="nofollow" id="li_ui_li_gen_1371050164899_0-link">inShare</a>1<script type="IN/Share+init" data-counter="right" data-showzero="true"></script> </li> <li data-link-name="email this story" class="full-line email"> <a rel="nofollow" href="#" class="rollover send-email" title="Send to a friend"><img class="trail-icon" alt="" src="http://static.guim.co.uk/static/4c1aa77cc7bba57a5d338098a7f6b9e1b4a2f19a/common/images/icon-email.png">Email</a> </li> </ul> </div> <div id="content"> <ul data-component="Article:byline" class="article-attributes trackable-component b4"> <li class="byline"> <div class="contributor-full"> Steven Johnson </div> </li> <li class="publication"> <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian" itemprop="publisher">The Guardian</a>, <time datetime="2008-02-06" itemprop="datePublished" pubdate="">Wednesday 6 February 2008</time> </li> </ul> <div data-component="Article:in body link" id="article-wrapper" class="trackable-component"> <div itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject" id="main-content-picture" itemprop="image"> <img width="460" height="276" itemprop="contentUrl representativeOfPage" alt="Teenager reading a book" src="http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Technology/Pix/pictures/2008/02/06/Reading460x276.jpg"> <div itemprop="caption" class="caption">The NEA makes a convincing case that young people are reading less, but it completely excludes reading done on computers</div> </div> <div id="article-body-blocks"> We've been hearing about the decline of reading for so long now that it's amazing a contemporary teenager can even recognise a book, much less read one. The US (where I am) seems to be cycling through yet another "Johnny can't read" mini-panic, sparked by the release of a National Endowment for the Arts study, called <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.tinyurl.com/ytcg38">To Read Or Not To Read</a>, which chronicles in exhaustive statistical detail the waning of literary culture and its dire consequences for society. Newspapers dutifully editorialised about America's literacy crisis.It's the sort of "our kids in peril" story - right up there with threats of MySpace predators - that plays well as a three-minute television newsbite or a three-paragraph op-ed piece. But if you actually read the report, what you find are some startling omissions - omissions that ultimately lead to a heavily distorted view of the Google generation and its prospects.You need to read itThe NEA makes a convincing case that both kids and adults are reading fewer books. "Non-required" reading - ie, picking up a book for the fun of it - is down 7% since 1992 for all adults, and 12% for 18-24 year olds.</div></div></div></div>

15 May 13

Ryan Reed

The more technology progresses, the less people are reading books which in my opinion deprives people from imagination

The NEA makes a convincing case that both kids and adults are reading fewer books. "Non-required" reading - ie, picking up a book for the fun of it - is down 7% since 1992 for all adults, and 12% for 18-24 year olds.

17 Apr 13

Bettina Bunton

The NEA makes a convincing case that both kids and adults are reading fewer books. "Non-required" reading - ie, picking up a book for the fun of it - is down 7% since 1992 for all adults, and 12% for 18-24 year olds.
The subtitle of the NEA report - A Question Of National Consequence - would lead you believe this dramatic drop must have had done significant damage to our reading proficiencies as a society. And indeed, NEA chair Dana Gioia states boldly in his introduction: "The story the data tell is simple, consistent and alarming." But then the data turns out to be complex, inconsistent and not really that alarming at all. As Gioia puts it, in the very next sentence: "Although there has been measurable progress in recent years in reading ability at the elementary school level, all progress appears to halt as children enter their teenage years."

18 Mar 13

vernellparker

he NEA makes a convincing case that both kids and adults are reading fewer books. "Non-required" reading - ie, picking up a book for the fun of it - is down 7% since 1992 for all adults, and 12% for 18-24 year olds.

14 Mar 13

Preston Luckey

Technological literacy
One of the few groups that has looked at these issues is the Pew Research Centre, which found in a 2004 study of politics and media use: "Relying on the internet as a source of campaign information is strongly correlated with knowledge about the candidates and the campaign. This is more the case than for other types of media, even accounting for the fact that internet users generally are better educated and more interested politically. And among young people under 30, use of the internet to learn about the campaign has a greater impact on knowledge than does level of education."
· Steven Johnson is the author of Everything Bad Is Good For You: How Today's Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter and The Ghost Map, available from guardian.co.uk/bookshop
· This article was amended on Thursday February 14 2008. The chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts is Dana Gioia, not Giola as we had it in the article above. This has been corrected.

1 more annotation...

12 Mar 13

Antolina S.

"The general decline in reading is not merely a cultural issue, though it has enormous consequences for literature and the other arts. It is a serious national problem."

literacy education technology reading research books trends digitalnatives

"The general decline in reading is not merely a cultural issue, though it has enormous consequences for literature and the other arts. It is a serious national problem."
"The general decline in reading is not merely a cultural issue, though it has enormous consequences for literature and the other arts. It is a serious national problem."

15 Feb 13

Elaine Harper

The NEA makes a convincing case that both kids and adults are reading fewer books.
"Non-required" reading - ie, picking up a book for the fun of it - is down 7% since 1992 for all adults, and 12% for 18-24 year olds.
Although there has been measurable progress in recent years in reading ability at the elementary school level, all progress appears to halt as children enter their teenage years."
hand of the NEA study: its studies are heavily biased towards words on a printed page.
because of course the single most dramatic change in media habits over the past decade is the huge spike in internet activity.
A recent study by the British Library of onscreen research activities found that "new forms of 'reading' are emerging as users 'power browse' ... "

4 more annotations...

14 Feb 13

Katie Haynes

Mary Ann Jacobs

Is reading declining?

Odds are that you are reading these words on a computer monitor. Are you not exercising the same cognitive muscles because these words are made out of pixels and not little splotches of ink? According to the NEA you're not, because in almost every study it cites, screen-based reading is excluded from the data. This is a preposterous omission, because of course the single most dramatic change in media habits over the past decade is the huge spike in internet activity.
"Whatever the benefits of newer electronic media, they provide no measurable substitute for the intellectual and personal development initiated and sustained by frequent reading."

22 Jan 13

Chanel Watkins

literacy reading education technology research books trends digitalnatives

If you believe a scary US report, reading is on the decline. But, says Steven Johnson, it completely fails to consider the amount that we do every day on our computers
We've been hearing about the decline of reading for so long now that it's amazing a contemporary teenager can even recognise a book, much less read one. The US (where I am) seems to be cycling through yet another "Johnny can't read" mini-panic, sparked by the release of a National Endowment for the Arts study, called To Read Or Not To Read, which chronicles in exhaustive statistical detail the waning of literary culture and its dire consequences for society
And we're comparing two different generations. Today's teenagers are the nine-year-olds who didn't test all that well back in 1999 - presumably because they didn't develop a love of reading that would sustain them through the competing attractions of being a teenager in the digital age.
Odds are that you are reading these words on a computer monitor. Are you not exercising the same cognitive muscles because these words are made out of pixels and not little splotches of ink?
Yes, we are reading in smaller bites on the screen, often switching back and forth between applications as we do it. A recent study by the British Library of onscreen research activities found that "new forms of 'reading' are emerging as users 'power browse' ... "

3 more annotations...

19 Jan 13

Shannon Taylor

literacy

Dawn of the digital natives

If you believe a scary US report, reading is on the decline. But, says Steven Johnson, it completely fails to consider the amount that we do every day on our computers

18 Jan 13

chris eldredge

Dawn of the digital natives

Brian Moreno

literacy education technology books trends

Jeffrey Alexander

The NEA makes a convincing case that both kids and adults are reading fewer books. "Non-required" reading - ie, picking up a book for the fun of it - is down 7% since 1992 for all adults, and 12% for 18-24 year olds.

Brittany Bogan

in 1992, 43% of Americans read at an intermediate level; by 2003 the number was slightly higher at 44%. "Proficient" readers dropped slightly, from 15% to 13%. In other words, the distribution is basically unchanged - despite the vast influx of non-native English speakers into the US population during this period.
All of which raises an interesting question: if people are reading less, why haven't scores dropped more dramatically? The answer gets to the most significant sleight of hand of the NEA study: its studies are heavily biased towards words on a printed page.

Justyn Robbins

Comparable non-events appear when you look at prose literacy levels in the adult population: in 1992, 43% of Americans read at an intermediate level; by 2003 the number was slightly higher at 44%. "Proficient" readers dropped slightly, from 15% to 13%. In other words, the distribution is basically unchanged - despite the vast influx of non-native English speakers into the US population during this period.
The only reason the intellectual benefits are not measurable is that they haven't been measured yet. There have been almost no studies that have looked at the potential positive impact of electronic media. Certainly there is every reason to believe that technological literacy correlates strongly with professional success in the information age.
We don't know exactly how that will play out in the long run, but thus far, when you look at the demographic patterns of the Google generation, there is not only no cause for alarm: in fact, there's genuine cause for celebration. The twentysomethings in the US - the ones who spent their childhood years engaged with computers and not zoning out in front of the TV - are the least violent, the most politically engaged and the most entrepreneurial since the dawn of the television era.

1 more annotation...

17 Jan 13

Dominick Gerace

reading literacy decline declining

We've been hearing about the decline of reading for so long now that it's amazing a contemporary teenager can even recognise a book, much less read one. The US (where I am) seems to be cycling through yet another "Johnny can't read" mini-panic, sparked by the release of a National Endowment for the Arts study, called To Read Or Not To Read, which chronicles in exhaustive statistical detail the waning of literary culture and its dire consequences for society. Newspapers dutifully editorialised about America's literacy crisis.
The NEA makes a convincing case that both kids and adults are reading fewer books. "Non-required" reading - ie, picking up a book for the fun of it - is down 7% since 1992 for all adults, and 12% for 18-24 year olds.

Alex Hornak

disinformation debate research site

The NEA makes a convincing case that both kids and adults are reading fewer books.
Non-required" reading - ie, picking up a book for the fun of it - is down 7% since 1992 for all adults, and 12% for 18-24 year olds.
data tell is simple, consistent and alarming.
17-year-olds to justify this big report. And there it is: the teenagers are down five points from 1988.
they didn't develop a love of reading that would sustain them through the competing attractions of being a teenager in the digital age

3 more annotations...

Patrick Green

when you look at the demographic patterns of the Google generation, there is not only no cause for alarm: in fact, there's genuine cause for celebration. The twentysomethings in the US - the ones who spent their childhood years engaged with computers and not zoning out in front of the TV - are the least violent, the most politically engaged and the most entrepreneurial since the dawn of the television era.

Victor Vasquez

group project

NEA makes a convincing case that both kids and adults are reading fewer books. "Non-required" reading - ie, picking up a book for the fun of it - is down 7% since 1992 for all adults, and 12% for 18-24 year olds
in 1992, 43% of Americans read at an intermediate level; by 2003 the number was slightly higher at 44%. "Proficient" readers dropped slightly, from 15% to 13%.
if people are reading less, why haven't scores dropped more dramatically? The answer gets to the most significant sleight of hand of the NEA study: its studies are heavily biased towards words on a printed page
we are reading in smaller bites on the screen, often switching back and forth between applications as we do it. A recent study by the British Library of onscreen research activities found that "new forms of 'reading' are emerging as users 'power browse' ... "
The only reason the intellectual benefits are not measurable is that they haven't been measured yet.
There have been almost no studies that have looked at the potential positive impact of electronic media.
Certainly there is every reason to believe that technological literacy correlates strongly with professional success in the information age.
study found that grades and reading scores rose with the amount of time spent online
"The general decline in reading is not merely a cultural issue, though it has enormous consequences for literature and the other arts. It is a serious national problem." A serious national problem with no apparent data to support it. Perhaps the scholars at the NEA should put down their novels and take some statistics classes?

7 more annotations...

Amber Button

""Although there has been measurable progress in recent years in reading ability at the elementary school level, all progress appears to halt as children enter their teenage years.""

Jacob Christian

And of course we are writing more, and writing in public for strangers: novel readers may have declined by 10%, but the number of bloggers has gone from zero to 25 million. Simply excising screen-based reading from the study altogether is like doing a literacy survey circa 1
500 and only counting the amount of time people spent reading scrolls.
But the unmeasured skills of the "digital natives" are not just about technological proficiency. One of the few groups that has looked at these issues is the P
ew
Rese
arch Centre, which found in a 2004 study of politics and media use:
"
Relying on the
internet a
s a source of campaign information is strongly correlated with knowledge
about the candidates and the campaign. This is more the case than for other types of media, even accounting for the fact that internet users generally are better educated and more interested politically. And am
ong young people under 30, use of the internet to learn about the ca
mpaign has a greater impact on knowledge than does level of education."
We don't know exactly how that will play out in the long run, but thus far, when you look at the demographic patterns of the Google generation, there is not only no cause for alarm: in fact, there's genuine cause for celebration. The twentysomethings in the US - the ones who spent their childhood years engaged with computers and not zoning out in front of the TV - are the least violent, the most politically engaged and the most entrepreneurial since the dawn of the television era

6 more annotations...

bianca moreno

emeralddragun

floyd coffey

To read or not to read

reading literacy books

The US (where I am) seems to be cycling through yet another "Johnny can't read" mini-panic, sparked by the release of a National Endowment for the Arts study, called To Read Or Not To Read, which chronicles in exhaustive statistical detail the waning of literary culture and its dire consequences for society.
But if you actually read the report, what you find are some startling omissions - omissions that ultimately lead to a heavily distorted view of the Google generation and its prospects.
Yes, we are reading in smaller bites on the screen, often switching back and forth between applications as we do it. A recent study by the British Library of onscreen research activities found that "new forms of 'reading' are emerging as users 'power browse' ...
Researchers recently gave Michigan children and teenagers home computers in exchange for permission to monitor their internet use. The study found that grades and reading scores rose with the amount of time spent online."

2 more annotations...

Glenn Lopez

"Technological literacy

The only reason the intellectual benefits are not measurable is that they haven't been measured yet. There have been almost no studies that have looked at the potential positive impact of electronic media. Certainly there is every reason to believe that technological literacy correlates strongly with professional success in the information age.

I challenge the NEA to track the economic status of obsessive novel readers and obsessive computer programmers over the next 10 years. Which group will have more professional success in this climate? Which group is more likely to found the next Google or Facebook? Which group is more likely to go from college into a job paying $80,000 (£40,600)?

But the unmeasured skills of the "digital natives" are not just about technological proficiency. One of the few groups that has looked at these issues is the Pew Research Centre, which found in a 2004 study of politics and media use: "Relying on the internet as a source of campaign information is strongly correlated with knowledge about the candidates and the campaign. This is more the case than for other types of media, even accounting for the fact that internet users generally are better educated and more interested politically. And among young people under 30, use of the internet to learn about the campaign has a greater impact on knowledge than does level of education."

In a piece for the New Yorker, Caleb Crain manages to write several thousand words about the fate of reading in the modern age with only a few passing references to the computer screen. Unlike the NEA, he at least acknowledges the potential benefits in one brief paragraph: "The internet, happily, does not so far seem to be antagonistic to literacy. Researchers recently gave Michigan children and teenagers home computers in exchange for permission to monitor their internet use. The study found that grades and reading scores rose with the amount of time spent online.""

reading literacy research education technology digitalnatives trends books

Technological literacy
The only reason the intellectual benefits are not measurable is that they haven't been measured yet. There have been almost no studies that have looked at the potential positive impact of electronic media. Certainly there is every reason to believe that technological literacy correlates strongly with professional success in the information age.
I challenge the NEA to track the economic status of obsessive novel readers and obsessive computer programmers over the next 10 years. Which group will have more professional success in this climate? Which group is more likely to found the next Google or Facebook? Which group is more likely to go from college into a job paying $80,000 (£40,600)?
But the unmeasured skills of the "digital natives" are not just about technological proficiency. One of the few groups that has looked at these issues is the Pew Research Centre, which found in a 2004 study of politics and media use: "Relying on the internet as a source of campaign information is strongly correlated with knowledge about the candidates and the campaign. This is more the case than for other types of media, even accounting for the fact that internet users generally are better educated and more interested politically. And among young people under 30, use of the internet to learn about the campaign has a greater impact on knowledge than does level of education."
In a piece for the New Yorker, Caleb Crain manages to write several thousand words about the fate of reading in the modern age with only a few passing references to the computer screen. Unlike the NEA, he at least acknowledges the potential benefits in one brief paragraph: "The internet, happily, does not so far seem to be antagonistic to literacy. Researchers recently gave Michigan children and teenagers home computers in exchange for permission to monitor their internet use. The study found that grades and reading scores rose with the amount of time spent online."

Kionte Jones

education research

16 Jan 13

Carl Cencetti

Odds are that you are reading these words on a computer monitor. Are you not exercising the same cognitive muscles because these words are made out of pixels and not little splotches of ink? According to the NEA you're not, because in almost every study it cites, screen-based reading is excluded from the data. This is a preposterous omission, because of course the single most dramatic change in media habits over the past decade is the huge spike in internet activity
And of course we are writing more, and writing in public for strangers: novel readers may have declined by 10%, but the number of bloggers has gone from zero to 25 million
ertainly there is every reason to believe that technological literacy correlates strongly with professional success in the information age
. This is more the case than for other types of media, even accounting for the fact that internet users generally are better educated and more interested politically
The internet, happily, does not so far seem to be antagonistic to literacy
Researchers recently gave Michigan children and teenagers home computers in exchange for permission to monitor their internet use. The study found that grades and reading scores rose with the amount of time spent online
What separates the Google generation from postwar generations is the shift from largely image-based passive media to largely text-based interactive media.
The twentysomethings in the US - the ones who spent their childhood years engaged with computers and not zoning out in front of the TV - are the least violent, the most politically engaged and the most entrepreneurial since the dawn of the television era

6 more annotations...

Jessica Cohn

a convincing case that both kids and adults are reading fewer books.
Non-required" reading - ie, picking up a book for the fun of it - is down 7% since 1992 for all adults, and 12% for 18-24 year olds.
the NEA
Although there has been measurable progress in recent years in reading ability at the elementary school level, all progress appears to halt as children enter their teenage years.
Today's teenagers are the nine-year-olds who didn't test all that well back in 1999 - presumably because they didn't develop a love of reading that would sustain them through the competing attractions of being a teenager in the digital age.
not exercising the same cognitive muscles because these words are made out of pixels and not little splotches of ink
According to the NEA you're not, because in almost every study it cites, screen-based reading is excluded from the data
There have been almost no studies that have looked at the potential positive impact of electronic media.
What separates the Google generation from postwar generations is the shift from largely image-based passive media to largely text-based interactive media.
"The general decline in reading is not merely a cultural issue, though it has enormous consequences for literature and the other arts. It is a serious national problem."

8 more annotations...

Brian West

The NEA makes a convincing case that both kids and adults are reading fewer books. "Non-required" reading - ie, picking up a book for the fun of it - is down 7% since 1992 for all adults, and 12% for 18-24 year olds.
Comparable non-events appear when you look at prose literacy levels in the adult population: in 1992, 43% of Americans read at an intermediate level; by 2003 the number was slightly higher at 44%. "Proficient" readers dropped slightly, from 15% to 13%. In other words, the distribution is basically unchanged - despite the vast influx of non-native English speakers into the US population during this period.
Odds are that you are reading these words on a computer monitor. Are you not exercising the same cognitive muscles because these words are made out of pixels and not little splotches of ink? According to the NEA you're not, because in almost every study it cites, screen-based reading is excluded from the data.
of course we are writing more, and writing in public for strangers: novel readers may have declined by 10%, but the number of bloggers has gone from zero to 25 million. Simply excising screen-based reading from the study altogether is like doing a literacy survey circa 1500 and only counting the amount of time people spent reading scrolls.
The only reason the intellectual benefits are not measurable is that they haven't been measured yet. There have been almost no studies that have looked at the potential positive impact of electronic media. Certainly there is every reason to believe that technological literacy correlates strongly with professional success in the information age.

3 more annotations...

David O'Brien

A refute of the NEA study "To Read or Not to Read"

reading literacy technology education

If you
believe a scary US report, reading is on the decline. But, says Steven Johnson, it completely fails to consider the amount that we do every day on our computers
- Steven Johnson
- The Guardian, Wednesday 6 February 2008
As Gioia puts it, in the very next sentence: "Although there has been measurable progress in recent years in reading ability at the elementary school level, all progress appears to halt as children enter their teenage years."
if you look at the charts, the single biggest change - either positive or negative - is the spike upwards in reading abilities among nine-year-olds, which jumped seven points from 1999.
the teenagers are down five points from 1988. But wait, this is all on a scale of 0-500. If you scored it on a standard 100-point exam scale, it's the equivalent of dropping a single point
Comparable non-events appear when you look at prose literacy levels in the adult population: in 1992, 43% of Americans read at an intermediate level; by 2003 the number was slightly higher at 44%. "Proficient" readers dropped slightly, from 15% to 13%. In other words, the distribution is basically unchanged - despite the vast influx of non-native English speakers into the US population during this period.
its studies are heavily biased towards words on a printed page.
And of course we are writing more, and writing in public for strangers: novel readers may have declined by 10%, but the number of bloggers has gone from zero to 25 million
The only reason the intellectual benefits are not measurable is that they haven't been measured yet. There have been almost no studies that have looked at the potential positive impact of electronic media. Certainly there is every reason to believe that technological literacy correlates strongly with professional success in the information age
I challenge the NEA to track the economic status of obsessive novel readers and obsessive computer programmers over the next 10 years. Which group will have more professional success in this climate? Which group is more likely to found the next Google or Facebook? Which group is more likely to go from college into a job paying $80,000 (£40,600)?

8 more annotations...

Dakota Butcher

reading literacy research

Fred Scott

Technological literacy
The only reason the intellectual benefits are not measurable is that they haven't been measured yet. There have been almost no studies that have looked at the potential positive impact of electronic media. Certainly there is every reason to believe that technological literacy correlates strongly with professional success in the information age.
But the unmeasured skills of the "digital natives" are not just about technological proficiency. One of the few groups that has looked at these issues is the Pew Research Centre, which found in a 2004 study of politics and media use: "Relying on the internet as a source of campaign information is strongly correlated with knowledge about the candidates and the campaign. This is more the case than for other types of media, even accounting for the fact that internet users generally are better educated and more interested politically. And among young people under 30, use of the internet to learn about the campaign has a greater impact on knowledge than does level of education."
In a piece for the New Yorker, Caleb Crain manages to write several thousand words about the fate of reading in the modern age with only a few passing references to the computer screen. Unlike the NEA, he at least acknowledges the potential benefits in one brief paragraph: "The internet, happily, does not so far seem to be antagonistic to literacy. Researchers recently gave Michigan children and teenagers home computers in exchange for permission to monitor their internet use. The study found that grades and reading scores rose with the amount of time spent online."
We don't know exactly how that will play out in the long run, but thus far, when you look at the demographic patterns of the Google generation, there is not only no cause for alarm: in fact, there's genuine cause for celebration. The twentysomethings in the US - the ones who spent their childhood years engaged with computers and not zoning out in front of the TV - are the least violent, the most politically engaged and the most entrepreneurial since the dawn of the television era.

2 more annotations...

Eric Brewer

Steven Johnson, writing in support of technology for helping literacy.

Steven Johnson literacy technology

There's measurable progress in two of the three age groups reviewed? Actually, it's more than just measurable: if you look at the charts, the single biggest change - either positive or negative - is the spike upwards in reading abilities among nine-year-olds, which jumped seven points from 1999.
if people are reading less, why haven't scores dropped more dramatically?
studies are heavily biased towards words on a printed page.
Are you not exercising the same cognitive muscles because these words are made out of pixels and not little splotches of ink?
"new forms of 'reading' are emerging as users 'power browse' ... "
novel readers may have declined by 10%, but the number of bloggers has gone from zero to 25 million.
There have been almost no studies that have looked at the potential positive impact of electronic media.
there is every reason to believe that technological literacy correlates strongly with professional success in the information age.
internet users generally are better educated and more interested politically.
Researchers recently gave Michigan children and teenagers home computers in exchange for permission to monitor their internet use. The study found that grades and reading scores rose with the amount of time spent online."
What separates the Google generation from postwar generations is the shift from largely image-based passive media to largely text-based interactive media.
The twentysomethings in the US - the ones who spent their childhood years engaged with computers and not zoning out in front of the TV - are the least violent, the most politically engaged and the most entrepreneurial since the dawn of the television era.

10 more annotations...

Alison Becvar

technology digitalnatives trends

Jonathan Sturdivant

Britney Matthews

"It's the sort of "our kids in peril" story - right up there with threats of MySpace predators - that plays well as a three-minute television newsbite or a three-paragraph op-ed piece. But if you actually read the report, what you find are some startling omissions - omissions that ultimately lead to a heavily distorted view of the Google generation and its prospects."

the google generation

t's the sort of "our kids in peril" story - right up there with threats of MySpace predators - that plays well as a three-minute television newsbite or a three-paragraph op-ed piece. But if you actually read the report, what you find are some startling omissions - omissions that ultimately lead to a heavily distorted view of the Google generation and its prospects.
"Non-required" reading - ie, picking up a book for the fun of it - is down 7% since 1992 for all adults, and 12% for 18-24 year olds.
A Question Of National Consequence - would lead you believe this dramatic drop must have had done significant damage to our reading proficiencies as a society.
NEA chair
Dana Gioia
"Although there has been measurable progress in recent years in reading ability at the elementary school level, all progress appears to halt as children enter their teenage years."
the spike upwards in reading abilities among nine-year-olds, which jumped seven points from 1999.
the teenagers are down five points from 1988.
Today's teenagers are the nine-year-olds who didn't test all that well back in 1999 - presumably because they didn't develop a love of reading that would sustain them through the competing attractions of being a teenager in the digital age.
Odds are that you are reading these words on a computer monitor. Are you not exercising the same cognitive muscles because these words are made out of pixels and not little splotches of ink? According to the NEA you're not, because in almost every study it cites, screen-based reading is excluded from the data.

8 more annotations...

15 Jan 13

Azariah Ramirez

charles lamarca

We've been hearing about the decline of reading for so long now that it's amazing a contemporary teenager can even recognise a book, much less read one. The US (where I am) seems to be cycling through yet another "Johnny can't read" mini-panic, sparked by the release of a National Endowment for the Arts study, called To Read Or Not To Read, which chronicles in exhaustive statistical detail the waning of literary culture and its dire consequences for society. Newspapers dutifully editorialised about America's literacy crisis.

09 Aug 12

sessoms

Learning Great Articles

11 Jul 12

Ed Webb

literacy internet

22 Mar 12

C. S. Soares

The NEA makes a convincing case that young people are reading less, but it completely excludes reading done on computers

09 Sep 11

Heather Scott

Education 2.0 Tool

Odds are that you are reading these words on a computer monitor. Are you not exercising the same cognitive muscles because these words are made out of pixels and not little splotches of ink? According to the NEA you're not, because in almost every study it cites, screen-based reading is excluded from the data. This is a preposterous omission, because of course the single most dramatic change in media habits over the past decade is the huge spike in internet activit
challenge the NEA to track the economic status of obsessive novel readers and
bsessive computer programmers over the next 10 years. Which group will have more professional success in this climate? Which group is more likely to found the next Google or Facebook? Which group is more likely to go from college into a job paying $80,000 (£40,600
Researchers recently gave Michigan children and teenagers home computers in exchange for permission to monitor their internet use. The study found that grades and reading scores rose with the amount of time spent online
What separates the Google generation from postwar generations is the shift from largely image-based passive media to largely text-based interactive media
when you look at the demographic patterns of the Google generation, there is not only no cause for alarm: in fact, there's genuine cause for celebration
he twentysomethings in the US - the ones who spent their childhood years engaged with computers and not zoning out in front of the TV - are the least violent, the most politically engaged and the most entrepreneurial since the dawn of the television era

5 more annotations...

25 Aug 11

Matthew Miller

190? tech reading

12 Nov 10

mary carrington

17 Oct 10

David Jakes

reading

20 May 10

Wildcat2030 wildcat

All of which raises an interesting question: if people are reading less, why haven't scores dropped more dramatically? The answer gets to the most significant sleight of hand of the NEA study: its studies are heavily biased towards words on a printed page

literacy

01 Apr 10

jose murilo

If you believe a scary US report, reading is on the decline. But, says Steven Johnson, it completely fails to consider the amount that we do every day on our computers

books culture digital education internet media research culturadigitalbre

17 Mar 10

katarina peovic

johnson literacy thh

"Non-required" reading - ie, picking up a book for the fun of it - is down 7% since 1992 for all adults, and 12% for 18-24 year olds.
"The story the data tell is simple, consistent and alarming.
the data turns out to be complex, inconsistent and not really that alarming at all
the teenagers are down five points from 1988. But wait, this is all on a scale of 0-500. If you scored it on a standard 100-point exam scale, it's the equivalent of dropping a single point. Not exactly cause for national alarm.
And we're comparing two different generations.
There have been almost no studies that have looked at the potential positive impact of electronic media
Certainly there is every reason to believe that technological literacy correlates strongly with professional success in the information age.

5 more annotations...

27 May 09

Tom Butler

This article argues that the NEA report discovering a decline in literacy is biased against online reading. An interesting case.Steven Johnson is the author of Everything Bad Is Good For You: How Today's Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter

literacy culture research reading decline

01 May 09

Tim Jacob

books reading toread

08 Jan 09

Eileen Schroeder

"Dawn of the digital natives
If you believe a scary US report, reading is on the decline. But, says Steven Johnson, it completely fails to consider the amount that we do every day on our computers."

research technology reading literacy

14 Oct 08

Fred Johnson

digitalnatives reading education

26 Aug 08

Lynne Jones

"All of which raises an interesting question: if people are reading less, why haven't scores dropped more dramatically? The answer gets to the most significant sleight of hand of the NEA study: its studies are heavily biased towards words on a printed pag

literacy trends

25 Aug 08

L@jost EU project

literacy digitalnatives l@jost

laura malita

literacy digitalnatives

24 Aug 08

Howard Rheingold

All of which raises an interesting question: if people are reading less, why haven't scores dropped more dramatically? The answer gets to the most significant sleight of hand of the NEA study: its studies are heavily biased towards words on a printed page

literacy

All of which raises an interesting question: if people are reading less, why haven't scores dropped more dramatically? The answer gets to the most significant sleight of hand of the NEA study: its studies are heavily biased towards words on a printed page.

07 Jun 08

Bradley Dilger

Steven Johnson | More on Everything Bad in relation to "To read or not to read" NEA report

tech writing reading education social networks

02 Apr 08

Michel Roland

reading reading_2.0 pratiques_informationnelles #delicious digital natives

if people are reading less, why haven't scores dropped more dramatically? The answer gets to the most significant sleight of hand of the NEA study: its studies are heavily biased towards words on a printed page
A recent study by the British Library of onscreen research activities found that "new forms of 'reading' are emerging as users 'power browse' ... "
"Whatever the benefits of newer electronic media, they provide no measurable substitute for the intellectual and personal development initiated and sustained by frequent reading."
The only reason the intellectual benefits are not measurable is that they haven't been measured yet. There have been almost no studies that have looked at the potential positive impact of electronic media.
I challenge the NEA to track the economic status of obsessive novel readers and obsessive computer programmers over the next 10 years. Which group will have more professional success in this climate?
internet users generally are better educated and more interested politically. And among young people under 30, use of the internet to learn about the campaign has a greater impact on knowledge than does level of education.

4 more annotations...

06 Mar 08

Betsey Blanche

books technology

15 Feb 08

George Williams

digital-culture digital-humanities digital-literature reading history-of-reading

Lisa Spiro

Sig. of digital media: Steven Johnson (Everything Bad is Good For You)

reading book_history

13 Feb 08

reading books article

Andy Polaine

Great piece by Steven Johnson refuting the NEA findings about the downward trend in reading books. Oh, by the way, almost all Johnson's books are good reads if you want to get away from the screen.

reading Books culture internet research trends statistics society children Education

danschawbel

reading books internet culture research trends technology online article reference

Barbara Fister

Everything the NEA says is bad is actually good. Some useful thoughts on the NEA report - though he opposes techies being able to make money versus dreamy escapist readers in a silly bit of argument.

books reading NEA

12 Feb 08

veerle tesse

technology internet trends

Kather Heenan

reading

09 Feb 08

Axel Vogelsang

reading illiteracy NEA USA Research Writing education

Dawn of the digital natives. If you believe a scary US report, reading is on the decline. But, says Steven Johnson, it completely fails to consider the amount that we do every day on our computers

08 Feb 08

Tuija Aalto

"novel readers may have declined by 10%, but the number of bloggers has gone from zero to 25 million"

books children research technology lapset kirjat oppiminen mediakäyttö

Ingrid Erickson

reading futureofthebook

Ari R

"If you believe a scary US report, reading is on the decline. But, says Steven Johnson, it completely fails to consider the amount that we do every day on our computers"

reading books technology culture trends children web education stevenjohnson

What separates the Google generation from postwar generations is the shift from largely image-based passive media to largely text-based interactive media.

writing publishing technology society sbjohnson reference citanka critique web books

07 Feb 08

Cam Good

Johnson blogme literacy reading research trends

nando pereira

internet audience books trends research

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