Teen Reading Slumps to Worst This Century Due to Surge in Screen Time (usnews.com)
- Reference: 0185527114
- News link: https://news.slashdot.org/story/26/09/08/1545207/teen-reading-slumps-to-worst-this-century-due-to-surge-in-screen-time
- Source link: https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2026-09-08/teen-reading-slumps-to-worst-this-century-due-to-surge-in-screen-time
> A 2012 reading high of 501 on PISA's index had declined to a score of 466 last year. The test is widely regarded as the world's leading gauge of educational performance and its results are closely scrutinized by governments and educators. "In reading, more screen time and less reading for pleasure have gone hand in hand with weaker results," OECD head Mathias Cormann told a press conference. "We're also seeing more hasty reading, students rushing through a text and giving a quick wrong answer."
>
> Reading scores fell more sharply in students from better-off backgrounds, the study added. Hindered by falling reading standards, average teenage science and maths skills were also at their lowest this century. Science fell from a 2009 high of 506 on the index to 486, while maths was down from 502 to 469 in the same period. East Asia was the best-performing region. Chinese cities that participated in the test, Japan, Korea, Singapore and Taiwan had the best educational systems with Britain and Estonia the only countries outside the region that made it into the top 10 in reading, mathematics and science.
[1] https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2026-09-08/teen-reading-slumps-to-worst-this-century-due-to-surge-in-screen-time
School Requirements (Score:5, Interesting)
My son went through high school having been assigned a total of three whole-book reading assignments. Most of his reading assignments were newspaper articles, short stories, or single chapters of books. When I went to high school, I was expected to read at least two books every summer, then several more per English class.
It's a choice made by teachers. My younger daughter had one teacher had her class read four books throughout the year. It was middle school, so they were shorter young adult books, but she had read more than my son did throughout all of high school in one class.
Re: (Score:2)
I never really enjoyed reading long fiction. I read a lot, just not fiction.
I was made to read fiction in school (a long time ago), and it always bored me to read stories that had nothing I wanted. I don't find it entertaining or even relaxing.
I've read plenty of books, and in my younger years, used to read those thick IT tomes on Windows and Linux and ....
[1]https://img-cdn.hpb.com/normal... [hpb.com]
[1] https://img-cdn.hpb.com/normal/9780672314100/0/0/300.jpg
Re: (Score:2)
A man ought to read just as inclination leads him, for what he reads as a task will do him little good. -- Samuel Johnson
Re: (Score:2)
But if s/he reads more as a task, will his/her inclination towards reading slowly become stronger and better defined, as training a skill?
Re: (Score:2)
Apparently there's a bit of variance in how well people can visualize things in their so-called "mind's eye". I'd assume the people who get the most enjoyment out of reading fiction are the ones where the story does play out like a movie in their head. I could never get into fiction either, because I'm one of those unlucky ones that just sees text on a page.
Re: (Score:2)
Details bore me. Describing a person's outfit in detail is filled with information I could not care any less about. Its not that I can't visualize, because I can and do.
I do understand why people DO like that kind of stuff, it's just not me.
Re: (Score:2)
Details bore me. Describing a person's outfit in detail is filled with information I could not care any less about.
Clearly you don't read any Brandon Sanderson books.
Re:School Requirements (Score:5, Insightful)
They should let kids choose their own books to read. If I hadn't discovered the sci-fi aisle at the library on my own, Of Mice and Men in 12th grade would have been the last book I ever read. Kids should learn that reading is fun when they're not doing it for a grade.
Re: (Score:2)
Hell, in that regard, comic books can be a stepping-stone to longer-form reading. World-building through visual imagery, chronologically sequential narration, whetting a taste for better-detailed, longer-form storytelling ... the comment pretty much writes itself.
Re: (Score:2)
Of Mice and Men is a great story - well worth reading even without being assigned to do so. Steinbeck's writing is incredible.
Re: (Score:2)
If it's not about Walt's dream to build Disneyland, I'm gonna be as disappointed as I was when I found out [1]this book [darbykane.com] wasn't about velociraptors.
[1] https://darbykane.com/books/such-a-clever-girl/
Re: School Requirements (Score:1)
It happens - my 6th grade desk just happened to be right next to a wall of books with a couple of "Rick Brandt Electronic Adventure" and we were off to the moon and Tibet.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
It is not just the teachers. The whole thing is a feedback loop. When a teacher finds that they would have to fail 80% of a class on a book reading assignment, they will reduce or remove that assignment in the future. Hence the problem is larger.
How to fix it? No idea. One approach would be that below a certain skill level, unless you are really mentally challenged, you do not leave school. Lear to read or never graduate. Another would be realistic feedback that includes both potential and actual skill and
Re: (Score:3)
This was already solved. Those people are branded as Deltas or Epsilons, and sent to perform menial labor requiring as little thought as possible.
Re: (Score:2)
You need to read the book again. If you read it. Methinks you may have just seen the movie and not gotten how things actually work. May be the fault of the movie, not yours, but in the book, things work differently.
Re: (Score:2)
A good point.
When one is not able to comprehend a text that person will not be able to build on it (and grow).
Re: (Score:2)
> It's a choice made by teachers. My younger daughter had one teacher had her class read four books throughout the year.
Teachers have a role, yes, but when 75%+ of the class just won't read anything, or they just get the AI summary? Then what? Still a useful learning activity, asking or requiring students to do something you know they won't do?
Re: (Score:2)
> It's a choice made by teachers.
It should be. But more and more these days, teachers get overruled by higher up, including school boards.
Digital distraction? (Score:2)
Digital distraction sounds more like a home/parenting problem,than a school problem.
Re: (Score:2)
An example that I worry about:
Even serious newspapers will these days use their websites no longer for stories to read but instead publish video's that suppose to tell the story.
Personally I hate this as the video's carry less information and take a lot longer than reading the story.
Luckily some news sites will only use the video as an extra on top of the written story but the trend is to more video's.
Now this is what adults are facing but it points to a trend, the (anti) social media shows kids only v
British news is slightly different (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm British, and have been following this from the other side of the story. In the UK it's more fragmented - this year [1]England is up, but Scotland and Wales are down [bbc.co.uk] and in some cases quite significantly. Wales seems to have taken a hell of a hit in reading for instance.
It's better news in maths and science but we're still behind where we were five-seven years ago except for science. Definitely a mixed bag, though all improvements are welcome of course.
[1] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvgy6n0l4rdo
Parents need to instill a love of reading (Score:4, Insightful)
Parents must be an active participant in teaching their children to read. This starts with reading to them and then teaching them how to read. Pre-school helps here as well, but if the parents themselves are not readers, then its pretty likely the child won't really become one either. My mom use to take me to the library at least once a month but probably twice as I think the borrowing of book was only two or three weeks at a time. Of course, if you were actively reading you could get through a book a week.
I'm really glad I didn't have video games or cellphones before I learned to read. By the time I got my first nintendo, I was already fulling into reading. I even loved the RPG games because of all the reading.
I don't envy parents in this society at all. They have so many unnecessary distractions being pitted against them by our society. Society may be moving forward technologically but I'm not sure that's the same as progress.
Re: (Score:2)
I have three boys in uni.
Read to them from babies and they were reading by preschool.
Regular library trips.
All three are regular novel readers now.
So parenting is a big part. Diggers are good at Dig Dig Digging man I got so sick of some books haha
Dr Zeus was a fav!
It's affecting everyone (Score:2)
Teens definitely affected on a massive scale like the article said. But, admittedly, I'm being affected too. I find myself attracted to an endless feed of garbage videos, most of which deliberately got misinformation clickbait. Multiple times I realize that I've spent too much time on the most useless thing of using the phone, I stopped, then found myself at it again. HELP!!!
Re: (Score:2)
Remove the apps.
I have no games or social media (easy since I don't really have any accounts) on my phone. I use it to communicate with actual friends and family. I keep an eye on email and occasionally use the browser but I do not like mobile web so most times i just wait until I can use a desktop OS.
Re: (Score:2)
It's not the teachers doing it, it is the school administrators and school boards who don't want to lose financial help if the students aren't above a certain level. Conservatives here in the USA who are more concerned with their religion than making sure students can actually understand what is going on have gotten far too much control of school districts around the country.
"Due to" (Score:2)
"Due to" is doing a lot of work there.
That's not what the study says. (Score:1)
USA Today headline: "Teen Reading Slumps... Due to Surge in Screen Time" isn't part of the study, and isn't proven by the study.
Grades are dropping, so if grades are an indication of reading ability then [age group divided] teen reading slumps. Sure. And the use of digital devices is on the rise -- they don't prove, but they say. It used to the boggieman was video games. Before that TV. Before that radio. Apparently EVERYTHING is the cause of people becoming stuipider.
> East Asia was the best-perfo
"Screen time" (Score:2)
A ridiculous oversimplified nonsense term. What if I am *reading* during my "screen time"? Does that count or do only dead-wood mediums count?
Re: (Score:2)
The point is not just that kids can't read but especially that they have trouble grokking what they read.
And for that understanding it makes no difference where they read something but practice is the key word.
Re: (Score:2)
It's a sensationalized way of making it seem like all technology use is bad, when it's really just brainrot short format videos.
For many teens, most screen time *is* reading... (Score:2)
So why would they be at all inclined to read some archaic story just because it's considered literature? It might be better writing by some standards, but that really only matters if you enjoy the content. Books assigned in English class are rarely the enjoyable kind. Classics can be great, but not if they're forced on you. There is less chance for someone to graduate without learning to read than there ever was in the past.
Out of sight, out of mind? (Score:3)
With books, like music, becoming more and more of a digital thing and no physical presence, the whole culture of reading is dying off. Teens aren't seeing other teens read (no books in hands), there's few bookstores around to hang out in to discover the books and with most information online there's no need to go to a physical library.
Schools can only do so much to force reading with assignments. Without building the habit of reading books for pleasure outside of school there's no way to turn this around.
Re: (Score:2)
And yet my daughter is a fan fiction addict which she reads on her phone.
Maybe kids just don't like what's offered? (Score:2)
I remember both primary and secondary school reading assignments, neither instilled a love of reading because the books generally just sucked. In primary school (1991–2000) we read books such as: “The Kay”, “Where the Red Fern Grows”, “Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes”, “David”, and importantly, the selection of books we could choose from, wasn't good. In grade 6, I got in trouble for bringing a book from the town library, that my teach, Mrs Rosey,
Someday it will resurge like vinyl records. (Score:1)
Maybe that's just wishful thinking though.
Re: (Score:3)
The thing is, most kids have always have needed to be forced to learn to read. Some (few, probably mainly the independent thinkers at 10-15% of the population) realize it is a powerful tool and a very good entertainment media and go for it. The rest does the minimum they think they can get away with. For those that are a bit smarter that still results in reasonable skills, for others in the absolute minimum. And compare the role-models that are out there. On one side you have people like Stubb from Finland,
Re: (Score:1, Troll)
...you have functional illiterates like Trump.
[1]Functional Illiteracy [wikipedia.org] means that somebody is barely able to read, not that they can read fairly well but don't like to or don't bother. Do you have any citable evidence that Mr. Trump is functionally illiterate, or is it just your TDS getting the better of you again?
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Functional_illiteracy
Re: (Score:1)
You need more evidence than the mountain that is already out there? Are you mentally challenged?
Re: (Score:2)
Trump relies on others to tell him what is going on, because actually reading reports is well beyond his ability to process information. I don't know if he has always been this bad, or if he had a stroke 10-15 years ago that did it to him, but what we see today is where the woman who changes his diaper is the one who posts the nonsense on fake-Truth Social.
Re: (Score:2)
I'll reserve judgement until he can pass a GED exam. Until then enjoy his expertise on magnets and water. [1]https://www.yahoo.com/news/art... [yahoo.com]
"You know, the new thing is magnets. So instead of using hydraulic that can be hit by lightning and it's fine. You take a little glass of water, you drop it on magnets, I don't know what's going to happen," Trump said.
"So, you know, the elevators come up in the new carriers—I think I'm going to change it, by the way—they have magnets. Every tractor has hydrau
[1] https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/trump-79-gets-confused-explaining-095006965.html
Re: (Score:1)
Proof he said so? Links to (minimum) 3 articles... no Fark crap.