Decline of teenage bookworm … one in three hasn’t read for fun in past year
WHETHER it was tales from Adrian Mole’s secret diary or the story of disaffected Holden Caulfield in The Catcher in the Rye, a good book used to be the perfect escape for teenagers.
But now a mix of social media, video games and the internet means adolescents are turning their backs on reading.
One in three teenagers admit they have not read a book for pleasure in the past year, a survey has found.
Fewer than one in five say they pick up a book, magazine or newspaper every day for fun – but 80 per cent do use the likes of Facebook, Twitter and Instagram daily.
It is a far cry from the 1970s, when 60 per cent of pupils the same age turned to literature every day.
Study leader Jean Twenge, a professor of psychology at San Diego State University, said social media was eroding traditional reading. She explained: ‘Time on digital media has displaced time once spent enjoying a book or watching TV.
‘It’s so convenient to read books and magazines on electronic devices like tablets. There’s no more going to the mailbox or the book store – you just download the magazine issue or book and start reading. Yet reading has still declined precipitously.’
The researchers analysed data from an ongoing US study that annually surveys 50,000 youngsters aged 13 to 18. They looked at survey results from 1976 to 2016, representing more than a million teenagers.
By 2016, the average 17- to 18year-old said they spent a staggering six hours a day of their free time texting, on social media and online. Between 2006 and 2016, their internet use during leisure time doubled.
It also rose by 75 per cent for children aged 15 to 16 and by 68 per cent for 13- to 14-year- olds. The findings were roughly the same regardless of gender, ethnicity or socioeconomic status.
By 2016, nearly nine in ten girls in their late teens said they visited social media sites every day.
Time spent playing video games rose from under an hour a day to an hour and a half on average.
One in ten children in the equivalent of the UK’s Year 9 spent 40 hours a week or more gaming – the time commitment of a full-time job, Professor Twenge noted.
The decline in reading print media was especially steep. In the early 1990s, 33 per cent of GCSE-age pupils (aged 16 to 17) said they read a newspaper nearly every day. By 2016, that number was just 2 per cent.
In the late 1970s, 60 per cent of 17- and 18-year-olds said they read a book or magazine almost every day; by 2016, only 16 per cent did.
They also reported reading two fewer books a year in 2016 compared with 1976.
About a third had not read a book – including e-books – for pleasure in the year prior to the 2016 poll, nearly triple the number reported in the 1970s.
While not quite as drastic, television and film consumption also declined. In the 1990s, 22 per cent of pupils age 14 to 15 watched five or more hours of television per day, compared to 13 per cent in 2016.
Professor Twenge said the findings did not bode well for students who want to go on to university.
‘Imagine going from reading two-sentence captions to trying to read even five pages of an 800-page college textbook at one sitting,’ she said. ‘Reading and comprehending longer books and chapters takes practice, and teens aren’t getting that practice.
‘There’s no lack of intelligence among young people, but they do have less experience focusing for longer periods of time and reading long-form text.
‘Being able to read long-form text is crucial for understanding complex issues and developing critical thinking skills.’