What a disturbing article.

[icerose]

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/14823087/?GT1=8717

The writer of the article states:

"In 2025 it’s time to put reading into perspective for the remainder of the 21st century: it is a luxury, not a necessity!"

[MajorDrums]

:eek:

[Mr. Funktastic]

Oh my.

[CaroGirl]

In my opinion, that's complete rubbish.

[veinglory]

Sounds like A-grade bollocks to me. Different people read different things for different reasons, but I am willing to bet literacy is at a pretty high level compared to any earlier period of history. Of course the tendency to leap from one specific finding to a big scary speculation has always been with us.

[Scarlett_156]

I started to read that article, but I got bored and didn't finish it...

[icerose]

And look at world history, for the most part every civilization that has ever achieved anything has had some form of writing, every civilization that has not had writing has been back water huts and wilderness.

If we lose our ability to read because of technology, then I suspect it wouldn't take long for us to return to those living conditions. You can't replicate technology if you don't know how to do it. You can't read manuals and continue other's work once they die if you can't read their notes. And if those creators stop making notes then the technology they create will die with them. The only way to avoid that is to go back to the mass apprenticeships but by the time the world would realize how far we have slid, most of the knowledge would already be lost.

Not the future I want for my kids!

[veinglory]

Meanwhile every tiny town has a massive chain book store in the middle of it and a newspaper dispenser on every corner.

[aka eraser]

I think the death knell for reading/literacy has been sounding since the cuneiform days. Someone will write something similar every decade or so.

[CaroGirl]

We have made at least two generations of American children miserable trying to teach them a skill that only a small percentage of them really need. And we have wasted billions of dollars that might well have gone for more practical education and training.

That statement is absolutely laughable. In what way has introducing the joy of reading to children made them miserable? I listen to my son whoop with laughter at the raucous rudeness of Captain Underpants. I watch the pride in my daughter's face when she comes home from school with a chapter book for the first time (this was last week), having skipped several reading levels at once. I read Harry Potter to them and they ask the meaning of this word and that word, and see their vocabulary growing, their sense of story and plot expanding.

Every child who is not given the tools to find that kind of joy, is being deprived of a lifetime of the magic of books.

[SeanDSchaffer]

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/14823087/?GT1=8717

The writer of the article states:

"In 2025 it’s time to put reading into perspective for the remainder of the 21st century: it is a luxury, not a necessity!"


Where did the writer get that information from? Reading is not a necessity only if you don't want the general population to make intelligent choices in life.

Or if you want them to follow your personal ideas based only on blind faith in what you say.

No, reading is necessary to an intelligent population. It is an intelligent population, one that can read, that has the advantage over one that cannot.

[MajorDrums]

We have made at least two generations of American children miserable trying to teach them a skill that only a small percentage of them really need. And we have wasted billions of dollars that might well have gone for more practical education and training.

That statement is absolutely laughable. In what way has introducing the joy of reading to children made them miserable? I listen to my son whoop with laughter at the raucous rudeness of Captain Underpants. I watch the pride in my daughter's face when she comes home from school with a chapter book for the first time (this was last week), having skipped several reading levels at once. I read Harry Potter to them and they ask the meaning of this word and that word, and see their vocabulary growing, their sense of story and plot expanding.

Every child who is not given the tools to find that kind of joy, is being deprived of a lifetime of the magic of books.

exactly. there were times where reading was my salvation. and reading just helps you THINK better, imo. how ironic he is writing a full-length article about the lack of importance of reading that he hopes people will read someday.

[Shadow_Ferret]

I think the columnist was writing that tongue-in-cheek.

[CaroGirl]

I think the columnist was writing that tongue-in-cheek.
Ah. No wonder it sounded so ridiculous. Like the famine-ravaged Irish eating the babies they can't stop producing and can't feed.

ETA: So endeth my righteous indignation.

[The Lady]

Oh well his job will be gone then in any case.

On the other hand when he says only 25 % of college students can read a complex book, I wonder just who is providing the definition of complex.

Looking back on my college days, studying English, and the kind of dreary introspective despairing rubbish we were forced to read, I'd be delighted if college students were taking a stand against all that literary nonsense.

[icerose]

I do hope it was tongue in cheek and find it ironic that a writer would consider reading a nonessential part of modern life.

Also the misery, I have heard from countless people who had/have reading "deficiencies" who were taught how to read through special programs and are very grateful for having the opportunity.

Reading this article gave me pause to think about how much reading I do in a single day excluding books and well, reading is a huge part of my life. I can't imagine it not having a place in the future.

[engmajor2005]

If this article wasn't tongue-in-cheek, then in the words of one of my old profs, this guy should be dragged out into the street and shot.

[johnzakour]

Yeah, I'm pretty certain he was using the "tongue in cheek" approach to make a point. It’s actually interesting to think how communication will be different 20 years from now. How will our society and educational systems adapt to these changes?

I’m always “discussing” with my son’s middle school teachers how strange it is to me that are teaching him to write in cursive but not to type. To me typing is now a much more practical tool to use in the future than cursive. Plus another teacher makes them bring in newspaper articles to critique and they have to be from an actual paper newspaper. Which I questioned her about, since many papers have the same content online. She said, she "wanted to make sure the kids knew how to read an actual paper." To which I almost replied, “are you going to teach them to write with hammers and chisels too.” (I didn’t say it but I was SO tempted.)

[J. Weiland]

Now I've read the article and want to remark that it is not the writer's opinion. He is merely envisioning the worst case scenario seeing that he states "Perhaps, in that not-too-distant future, we might wake up one morning to read an editorial like this".

[Shadow_Ferret]

Well, if you read his profile that man has made his living at writing. I can't imagine him advocating reading isn't important.


Rogers is also a best-selling novelist whose fiction explores the human impact of technology. His five books have been published worldwide, optioned for film and television, and chosen by the Book of the Month Club.

[FergieC]

That's a cool article. Very Orwell. Not so much tongue in cheek as a warning about where current trends could be leading of not checked. It's Sci-fi basically - what 2025 might look like.

The interesting thing is that it's not far removed from what the past was like. It used to be that only a tiny minority of a population could read and write, and the that minority had massive power over the majority. So there's a reason why those with power might wish this future to come true.

[Jaycinth]

This is interesting.
Especially since one of my bosses is pulling her daughter out of a very exclusive (and expensive) preschool program because the teachers (and school)do not advocate reading to the kids. Instead they have quiet time where the kids are supposed to put their heads down on their desks and be quiet while the teacher puts on a 'books on tape'.

I thought that was ridiculous. She's livid.

[PeeDee]

Remember to read articles like this with a Grain Of Salt (http://www.amazon.com/How-Lie-Statistics-Darrell-Huff/dp/0393310728/sr=8-1/qid=1163456738/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-2280131-7676859?ie=UTF8&s=books).

[merper]

He makes a very good point though. Namely, written language isn't something that's been hardwired into our brains. If we find a more complex form of communication, written language will go the way of the heiroglyphics. What can replace it? Communications implants with access to massive databases like Wikipediax1000. At first, you'll still be reading pages - just in your head. Eventually the tech will evolve to the point where you're no longer reading, but the answer just appears in your head as if it were a thought. There are people who are already working on the neural-electro interfaces - sure you've seen the story of the prosthetic arm controlled as if it were real.

However, I doubt this sort of tech will be available or at least widespread in 2025.

[Rolling Thunder]

I remember, when computers started to become mainstream, the prediction was made we'd be a 'paperless' society within 5 years.

I feel safe about reading being around a long time yet.

[JoeEkaitis]

Still waitin' for that flying car and that 20-hour work week.

[Christine N.]

I’m always “discussing” with my son’s middle school teachers how strange it is to me that are teaching him to write in cursive but not to type.

Actually I just heard about a study that says handwriting skills are essential to brain development. I can understand that; hand-eye coordination, fine motor skill, thought processes that can only be tapped by physically writing.

I wish we could have handwriting skills like our grand-mothers and great-granmothers did, where the art of calligraphy was taught.

Oh, and I always can tell when someone's gone to Catholic school - their handwriting is excellent.

[Rolling Thunder]

Sadly, I wasn't allowed to handle anything sharp in school. Dull crayons were my only source of comfort.....

[Appalachian Writer]

Well, if I make it to 2025 (which I doubt) I'm glad I'll be retired. I teach English, and if what this writer says holds true, there wouldn't be any need for school teachers, eh? I'd say that reading is a luxury that we can all afford.

[Mom'sWrite]

I got nauseous reading this article.


Two thumbs way, way down for this theory.:mad:

[janetbellinger]

This is really strange and opposite to what I originally put in my novel, Rain. It was set partially in the future, up to 2025, and in it, reading books had become a luxury but it also became a bit of a status symbol so everybody wanted to do it. Books came back into style and libraries were larger and life to accomodate the users. People had gotten tired on reading online and were kind of getting back to the earth by way of reading hands on.

[ChaosTitan]

Mankind has been reading script in one form or another for thousands of years.

I fear for the mind of someone who thinks it'll all dry up in nineteen years.

[RG570]

There was an outer limits episode about this. Not the old black and white one, but the newer Canadian version.

It was about a guy who for whatever reason couldn't have the datastream implant and everyone thought he was retarded because he could only read books.

I would dispute that reading is not "natural". The appeal to nature is often employed by those with incredibly weak arguments. If reading symbols is unnatural, then having a computer shoved into your brain and being fed thoughts is an obscenity.

[brer]

Originally Posted by Rllgthunder:
Sadly, I wasn't allowed to handle anything sharp in school. Dull crayons were my only source of comfort.....
I'm confused, I thought crayons were tide-me-overs until lunchtime? :D

[Vomaxx]

The article is interesting because, if it was seriously meant, it predicts the end of democracy and the emergence of an Orwellian world. The author does say that these "higher skills" are needed by organizers and managers, but not by the ordinary people. Apparently, then, the world will become one in which a mass of semi-literate proles, kept docile and stultified by their non-literary movies and other entertainment, will be told what to do by the teeny number of people who can read complex things.

The moral is: keep reading and writing, folks. We're the elite, and we're going to rule the world!! (An even more exciting prospect that getting published.) :D

-------------------
(More seriously, the article can be taken as an exhortation to keep trying to spread high-level literacy to all and sundry, lest we wind up in the kind of world he predicts.)

[merper]

I would dispute that reading is not "natural". The appeal to nature is often employed by those with incredibly weak arguments. If reading symbols is unnatural, then having a computer shoved into your brain and being fed thoughts is an obscenity.

Written verbal communication(not pictographic) has only been around for 6000 years. It's not wired into our brains like language is. There is nothing "weak" about that argument unless you're trying to deny evolution. That's not to say that writing can't help with certain aspects of brain development, but no one's been weeded out of society for not being able to read/write.


Still waitin' for that flying car

The flying car does exist. The question is - do you and a million of your buddies want to pay for the $1000 in gas to fly it to work?

There's absolutely nothing wrong with the loss of written communication if we can find a way to supplant it. I can understand the inherent bias on this board, but the written word is hardly the most efficient way possible to store and communicate information. Assuming our civilization doesn't collapse, we will develop the technology I mentioned. The question is not how, but when.

[spacejock2]

Re flying cars: http://www.haynes-aero.com/

If the name seems familiar, that's because Robin is my uncle.

I write science fiction and he's off designing it ;-)