Wednesday, November 24, 2004
As each day passes, we grow less intelligent
A great dark fog covered the land, and within it, people did simple, mindless things: watch sit-coms, gossip, play the first edition of Pong, download music files.
They did not read — most of them.
And so, year after year, they grew less and less likely to think.
They grew stupid. And shallow.
Fewer than half of American adults read a novel, short story, play or poem in a year’s time. That amazing, dismal confession has stayed with me for months, since the summer report of “Reading at Risk.”
The report by the National Endowment for the Arts compares 2002 to 1992 and 1982, using data from Census Bureau surveys. The comparison reveals that fewer Americans than ever before read literature — or read at all. It also reveals the rate of decline is accelerating.
In 1982, 57 percent of adults read literature. In 2002, 46 percent did. The rate of decline tripled during the past 10 years, hitting a 14 percent loss.
Before you cavil: People were not asked about the quality of their choices; could have been John Grisham or Herman Melville, limericks or “The Iliad.”
They were asked whether they had read fiction or poetry. They were not asked about nonfiction reading. They were not asked about reading for work or school, only about reading at leisure.
Asked, “With the exception of books required for work or school, did you read any books during the last 12 months?” Fifty-six percent said yes, down from 61 percent in 1992.
Fewer men are reading, fewer women; fewer whites, blacks, Hispanics. All education levels, all age groups are reading less literature.
But the rate of decline is 55 percent greater among the youngest adults, those 18 to 24. once they read the most.
Fewer of these young adults read for fun or see adults reading at home than 20 years ago. And a far greater percentage of them watch three or more hours of television a day.
So what, you say; things change. The electronic media ascend; print disappears.
But that’s not true worldwide. In Canada and the United Kingdom, countries with whom we share literature, adults read more than we do. In the United Kingdom, 52 percent of adults are strong readers — eight or more books a year — compared to 24 percent here.
To me, then, it seems inevitable that our country has dropped to 10th among industrialized nations whose young adults have earned high school diplomas.
The printed word asks for “focused attention and contemplation” and thus makes “complex communications and insights possible,” Dan Gioia, chair of the NEA, said in his preface to “Reading at Risk.”
Reading makes your brain work; it requires active participation. And there are rewards to this. Use it or lose it.
Too bad for all of us because the solution is so simple. Don’t turn on the TV, a computer game or movie at the end of the day. Read to your child.
Just a bedtime story will do. From your lips to their hearts and brains, and the fog will lift.
By CLAUDIA SMITH BRINSON
Columnist
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