Has drop in newspaper reading led to a decline in IQ?

Has the decline in newspaper reading led to a decline in intelligence? This popped into my head one morning when I was watching the newspaper delivery woman make her way up my street. Sadly, she only had to make three deliveries

As I brought in my three newspapers, I heard a radio report that IQ scores have been declining among people born since 1975, at the rate of seven fewer IQ points per generation. The IQ drops have been happening within families, with the IQ scores of sons lower than their fathers. These statistics are based upon a Norwegian study of 730,000 IQ test results of conscript soldiers taken between 1962 and 1991 (which is why only males were studied).

These results don’t seem to be genetic; the study showed that the dysgenic theory, in which people with lower IQs were thought to have more children than people with higher IQs, so that society is getting “dumber,” doesn’t apply. People with higher IQs have more children than those with lower IQs — and the decline in these children’s IQs was very similar.

The researchers suggested that the environment children grew up in could be the reason for lower IQs, perhaps due to how education and play have changed since 1975 and the rise of the internet and social media.

But yet … whether one reads a newspaper or a book in print or online, isn’t reading still an essential skill for learning and devel- oping the skills measured on IQ tests? Often the only books most students read are those assigned in school. Pre-internet surveys found that many adults read one book a year — or less. This is probably true today.

What they read were newspapers. Often not the news, but other sections. Entertainment. Comics. Life. For males in particular, sports. Newspaper sports pages used to be the best place to follow one’s favourite sports teams.

This habit has vanished over the last 40 years. Few youth today turn to newspapers to keep up with anything. The decline in newspaper reading seems to parallel the decline in IQ scores. There could well be a relationship. With the loss of easily accessible newspapers to read, reading skills have atrophied, and so has the development of the skills IQ tests are meant to measure.

We are at a crossroads. Should we change IQ tests to measure the new ways intelligence is developed and expressed, if we can determine what those skills are? Or do we need to consider that modern technology is robbing us of essential skills that are needed no matter which technology we use, and that we must act to teach those skills once more? Newspapers and IQ: We may be losing so much more than we realized with the shuttering of each newspaper and cancelled subscription. Paul Keery is a professional writer who writes articles, blogs and books about history and law.