Survey of Public Participation in the Arts (SPPA) reveals that 48.5% of people in the USA read at least one book in the past year. Down from 52% five years prior.
As someone who writes fiction and poetry, this may seem alarming, but I think that as long as we keep producing original content, there will be someone who is interested in being a consumer of our literature.
The number of people who read for enjoyment has decreased nearly seven percent in the past ten years.
Roughly three percent of the United States population ever ventures to write a novel. Yet the numbers continue to decline for the reading communities.
Children are being taught to have more screen time with the ever-increasing availability of tablets and other technology, time that should be devoted to young people consuming written stories or other forms of literary work.
It is truly remarkable that we give our kids time to be on their devices, but they are mostly watching videos and quick attention grabbing content. Reading has always appealed to me growing up because I remember getting to spend a good bit of my day in the library at the school.
I was raised to know how to use a computer, yes. I was still taught the value of reading a paperback book, though. There are many places where I could find comfort, but one of the most important places in my upbringing was definitely going to the various libraries in the community.
Reports from the Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) have shown decreases in reading test scores across multiple age groups from 9-year-olds to 13-year-olds during the 2020s. The percentage of 13-year-olds reading for fun steadily dropped from the 2010s into the early 2020s. The percentage of children in that age group saying they read for fun “never or hardly ever” dropped nearly 10% from 2012 to 2023.
These statistics are very worrying regarding the future of literacy and the impact of literature on the American youth.
Books are a source of growth for our imaginations and I do not know how much more our numbers can shift before there is a more defined deficit in the learning communities.
Literacy and writing are two of the most important skills that one can gain at a young age and with the numbers shifting as they have, young people need to be pushed toward reading for enjoyment and learning about its benefits.
There are many ways that we can teach our young people about the importance of reading.
Reading to children before bed at night or having them read one of their favorite stories to out loud could help promote reading for fun among young people.
Reading is a very important skill to have because we are also constantly consuming words.
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics American Time Use Survey shows us that individuals over 15 years old are watching nearly three hours of television per day as far back as 2015. Compare this to individuals aged 15 to 19 at the same time who were reading for an average of eight minutes per weekend day, as opposed to their nearly 90 minutes of playing games or using a computer.
More measures need to be put into place to increase the number of young people who are interested in reading and spending time enjoying the concept of literature. If the literacy declines continue, America is looking at a bleak future when it comes to consuming literature and historical content in the way of how was meant to be consumed.
