The 737-800 I am flying in
just broke through 10,000 feet, the height at which the crew turns off the seat
belt sign and makes the flight announcements.
“The bad news. . . ” says an
authoritative and calm voice.
My heart jumps into my
mouth. Obviously something catastrophic is about to happen.
An engine has fallen off, or
someone forgot to fill the gas tank or we are about the fly into a hurricane.
The voice continues. “The
bad news today is that there is no WiFi on this flight.”
Moans, groans and the odd
swear word drift through the cabin. This is indeed a catastrophe. Without the
Internet, passengers will be forced to find other ways of filling the time.
Perhaps even read a book.
I stand up and stroll the
aisle to stretch my legs. There are close to 200 folks on this plane and I
observe that maybe three or four are reading a book.
My unofficial impromptu
survey fits with what I have been reading about how people spend their leisure
time.
Booknet Canada, a non-profit
organization that helps the book industry in a variety of ways, has surveys
showing that the number of Canadians who read books continues to decline.
An April 2018 BookNet survey
shows that reading now ranks fourth as a Canadian leisure time activity.
Twenty-one per cent of survey respondents said reading is their favourite way
of spending free time. Other ways are time with family 27 per cent, watching TV
26, browsing the Internet 24, watching a movie 18 per cent.
Not surprisingly the
situation in the U.S., which is led by a man who does not read, and perhaps
doesn’t know how to read, is worse.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported
recently that the number of Americans who read for pleasure has hit a record
low. Only 19 per cent of Americans surveyed said they read for pleasure.
The deeper you dig into U.S.
surveys the more shocking the statistics become. Thirty-three per cent of
American high school graduates never read another book after leaving high school.
Forty-two per cent of college grads never read another book after college. And,
70 per cent of U.S. adults have not been
in a bookstore in the last five years.
All this statistical
evidence leads some folks, me included, to worry that North American society is becoming a post-literate culture.
The decline in book reading,
however, should not be definitive evidence of a decline in literacy. People are
reading electronically and there is a tendency to believe that reading from a
screen is simply ‘playing on the computer.’
A wealth of good reading is
available through computers. There is a question, however, about whether it is
as focussed, and therefore as thought-provoking, as book reading.
Reading on a computer, whether
it be desktop, tablet or smartphone, is subject to regular interruption. Beeps
and dings from social media are constant, as are notifications from companies
trying to promote or sell something.
The greatest evidence of
declining literacy, in my opinion, is found in listening to and reading the
comments of people commenting on important subjects.
Much of what you hear today
on radio and TV talk shows or read in newspaper and social media comment
sections is unintelligent rant. Quick hit polemics from tongues not connected
to any form of self discipline or critical thinking.
Years of book reading helps
us to develop good thought processes, and to ask questions that will help us be
better informed. Reading books also is a pathway into history, which holds
innumerable lessons on how communities and societies are shaped.
Recent studies in Norway and
Britain have concluded that collective IQs have been getting lower over the
last 50 years. Changes in lifestyles, such as changes in education systems,
less reading and more video games, were given as possible reasons for the
decline.
It is hard to accept that
despite all the innovations of the modern era, people generally are becoming dumber
by the decade. But there are days, especially after listening to a lot of
political discourse, that you shake your head and mumble to yourself about
being surrounded by idiots.
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