Declining Reading Habit
(1) News - If you can't remember the last time, you saw a teenager reading a book, newspaper or magazine, you're not alone. In recent years, less than 20 percent of teens report reading a book, magazine or newspaper daily for pleasure. More than 80 percent say they use social media every day, according to a research published by the World Psychological Association.
(2) "Compared with previous generations, teens in the 2010s spent more time online and less time with traditional media, such as books, magazines and television," said lead author of the book yGen and professor of psychology at ABC University. "Time on digital media has displaced the time that was once spent enjoying a book or watching TV."
(3) Swaner and her colleagues analyses data concluded from an ongoing study of a nationally representative sample of approximately 50,000 eighth, tenth and twelfth grade students annually. They looked at survey results from 1976 to 2016, representing more than 1 million teenagers. While the study started with only twelfth - graders in the 1970s, eighth and tenth - graders were added in 1991.
(4) Use of digital media increased substantially from 2006 to 2016. Among twelfth-graders, internet use during leisure time doubled from one to two hours per day during that period. It also increased 75 percent for tenth-graders and 68 percent for eighth-graders.
(5) "In the mid- 2010s, the average twelfth-grader reported spending approximately two hours a day texting, just over two hours a day on the internet - which included gaming - and just under two hours a day on social media," said Swaner. That's a total of about six hours per day on just three digital media activities during their leisure time."
(6) In comparison, tenth-graders reported a total of five hours per day and eighth-graders reported four hours per day on those three digital activities. Consequently the spent time in the digital world is seriously degrading the time they spend on more traditional media such as print book and newspapers.
(7) The decline in reading print media was especially steep. In the early 1990s, 33 percent of tenth-graders said they read a newspaper almost every day. By 2016, that number was only 2 percent. In the late 1970s, 60 percent of twelfth-graders said they read a book or a magazine almost every day; by 2016, only 16 percent did. Twelfth-graders also reported reading fewer books each year in 2016 compared to how much they read in 1976 and approximately one-third did not read a book (including e-books) for pleasure in the year prior to the 2016 survey.
(8) There's no lack of intelligence among young people. However due to over dependence on digital media they find it difficult to focus for long periods of time and to read long-form text. Subsequently they find it challenging to understand complex issues and develop critical thinking skills.
The writer believes that very few teens indulge in reading as a pleasurable activity.
In order to find out.......
Traditional media has been replaced by digital media.
The digital activities that the twelfth-graders indulge in are _______.
Teens today hardly read print media for _______.
"Time on digital media has displaced time once spent enjoying a book or watching T.V."
