Hence the pivot to video.
What is this trash article. It throws numbers out with completely no basis for doing so. I don’t even know that I necessarily disagree with them, or the thought that America is probably not as literate as it ought to be, but this article is someone yelling into the void.
So to the OP, I’m not sure how one could suggest they learned anything from this article but the author’s opinion.
As an avid audio book listener I really thought the rise of podcasts would make americans more literate but it seems like it had an inverse effect.
What’s going on in the US? Is the water poisoned with heavy metals or something? The mental decline is palpable.
The boomers are aging and lead poisoned. Education system is spotty. Poor areas have less tax revenue, leading to worse schools, and that creates a cycle.
People are addicted to social media and it’s literally rotting their brains. 15 second video clips with the same background audio playing in a loop.
I think it is a lot of things happening concurrently.
33% of high school graduates never read another book again in their lives after graduation.
Let that sink in.
228 million adults in the US, and 75 million of them are committed to never reading.
Sounds a lot like the voting block for a certain orange fascist…
Seems like you’re adding “committed” into that stat. The people who will never read a book post high school aren’t doing so out of commitment but for a variety of reasons.
It’s also silly to pretend book readers are inheriently better. I know a few magas that read books after high school. It’s all fantasy novels but they do technically read books.
I’d say it’s probably a lot more in line with the ones who didn’t vote at all. I know everyone likes to say “conservative dumb,” but we’re all aware there are plenty of educated conservatives, probably just as many dumb liberals. The true dumb are the ones who sit out an election. That’s “I don’t read” dumb.
‘Books are for fags’ is probably what they think
Books is*…
*Them books is fer
Not cool, dude. There are very few words I self-censor, but that’s absolutely one of them.
Not sure if their comment is related / deliberate, but the image in the article is from the film Idiocracy
In the film, the people of the future speak real slow and dumb. When they hear the time travelling protagonist speak in a vanilla US West Coast accent, the narrator describes them as thinking he sounds “Faggy and pretentious”, there are multiple points in the film where future-folk tell the main character “you sound like a fag”
That’s right. They literally say “books are for fags” in the movie several times. It’s a direct quote.
What I believe they mean is that the same people who’d use it as a demeaning slur and something to avoid are the same who would never touch a book after not being required to do so … And likewise vote for people who’s entire platform is fear mongering and hate towards the “other”.
If I talk about people being racist against African-Americans, I still don’t drop n-bombs. Not acceptable.
Sure retsrd
Tell me you’re one of the 33% who don’t read without telling me.
New user tag, yay!
don’t be retarded
I haven’t read a book in like 8 years :/
Yeah, but you’re not anti-book. It’s different if you just don’t have time / energy right now. There are literally millions of people who just…like, don’t believe in it.
“Uh, s-scuse me, all I see are screens, I’m just looking for something with some words in it.”
“Words?”
“Yeah.”
“You mean like in the books!? What for?”
“Just… to read.”
“Heh heh heh heheheheh… heheheheh…”
Yeah. I just don’t crave it I guess. i still read the news once a day.
Books are so much better than the news.
Yeah. Responsibilities suck T_T
To be fair, I read little nowadays, but audiobooks where I can listen to seties while doing laundry, or trash, or DIY projects… I blasted through Cosmere 2 years ago, plus the Dresden series, Noobtown, DCC, Demon Mart, He Who Fights with Monsters last year, and this year (and past two months) the Wandering Inn series (Book 12 now). I enjoy books far more than film and tv, mostly due to speed at which I can devour the content (1.75x usually).
If they could do you think Trump would have gotten elected TWICE! nevermind he probably still would have…
Or Obama for that matter.
What a brainless thing to say
You found one of the 54%
ez block
I enjoyed Obama’s books. Have you read any of them?
Oh so then they’re fully qualified to be ICE. No intelligence required. In fact, intelligence hurts your chances.
Thats LITERALLY what police in my area were advertising 10 years ago for a hiring event.
They had fliers for a big hiring event that said “High school diploma not required. Dropouts encouraged to apply”
I remember seeing it and saying “Well this can only end well.” in a very sarcastic tone.
And as someone pointed out, that is basically functional illiteracy.
It’s worth noting that illiteracy isn’t simply a pass/fail test that depends on if you can read individual words. Literacy is largely determined by critical thinking skills and the ability to intuit things that aren’t directly stated.
For a good example, a large part of higher literacy is based on being able to see a piece of work, (a news article, video, book, song, etc.), and identify who the intended target audience is. Usually, the answer is not “me”. But I mention this specific example because people have become accustomed to laser-focused algorithms that only show content that is directly relevant to themselves. TikTok, Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, etc all have finely crafted algorithms that are designed to keep you engaged. And they do so by serving content that is directly aimed at you.
As algorithmic media feeds have become more common, people have literally lost the ability to identify when something is not meant for them. People used to see an irrelevant piece of media, and they would just go “oh it’s not for me” and move on. But now they tend to be surprised that they’re seeing the media, and they tend to get angry when something doesn’t directly confirm their lived experience. And they tend to take it out on the creators. We have literally seen content creators start changing the way they make their media, to avoid people getting angry when something isn’t directly relevant to themselves.
For instance, maybe I make a TikTok about the proper way to throw a football. Pretty basic stuff, right? Previously, if I left it at that, anyone who wasn’t interested in throwing a football would just move on. But now, I’d inevitably get angry comments about “but I’m in a wheelchair, what about me”, “why is this on my feed, I hate football”, “I have a torn rotator cuff, why are you excluding me” types of comments.
Now, content creators literally add disclaimers in their content, to directly state who the intended audience is. To go back to that same example, I’d probably have step 0 of the tutorial be something along the lines of “okay so this is obviously just for the people looking to check their throwing form. If you don’t like football, can’t throw a ball, or have some sort of disability that stops you from doing so, you can obviously move on.” Because if I don’t have that disclaimer somewhere near the start, I’ll inevitably get some angry comments. And those comments are being left by functionally illiterate people, who have lost (or never had) the ability to determine an intended audience.
That explains a lot
I always wonder how these things are determined. Does a 6th grade reading level mean that you cannot read above that level (simplifying here), or just that you generally don’t read above it? Never in my adult life have I taken a survey/test that would generate the statistics like this that we always see, nor do I know anyone that has (which isn’t to say that they aren’t happening). If the media being generated for me is written at a lower level, and that’s what they are basing these types of statistics off of, that’s not reflective of my abilities. Don’t get me wrong, my country is beyond fucked, but I’m not really a fan of how the author of this article tried to make their point (and I’m not just talking about the reading level statistic).
Never in my adult life have I taken a survey/test that would generate the statistics like this that we always see
These are statistical models they aren’t asking everyone or anything even close. It’s based on random samplings and I found two of these one that operats at the international level another at the federal level
There is an article about the later one’s results, it tested more than reading level. here
These studies aren’t done by organizations that want to denigrate, they want to raise awareness and improve everyone’s reading levels.
This and other articles are because it’s humans nature to make oneself feel superior to others but the reality is some of the people in this very thread may be classified as one of those in a sixth grade level. Statistically it’s all but certain.
This is an op-ed disguised as a news story. It doesn’t even tell me who did the study, doesn’t tell me where to find it, gives me nothing, and then goes off on some very politically charged tangents.
It says Americans are dumb though, so to the top with you!
It’s been a while since I read about it, but if I remember correctly it’s roughly the level medication directions are written in. Simple, direct language that’s hard to misinterpret. People at that reading level can read levels above it, but struggle to comprehend it.
That kind of seems like the responsible thing to do with medications regardless, remove any possible ambiguity. I can read well above these levels and when I create standard operating procedures I attempt to do the same thing. Clear, concise, repeatable, and limit jargon as much as possible. A network admin, system admin, help desk person, or someone fresh off the line might need to follow them one day and I can’t assume they have the same foundational knowledge or environmental familiarity that I do. What I do is also a lot less important and has a far narrower reach than medication.
Used to work at ATT. They used a goddamn dictionary tool for their abbreviations. And some were used for five things or more. You had to read them in context to differentiate. A damn nightmare.
Clearly the DOE has been doing a great job for 40+ years, reducing the average reading level
Class content is determined almost entirely at the local or state level, not the federal. How well students in Mississippi read has almost nothing to do with how the DOE has been doing, because what kids in Mississippi (and every other state) learn is determined by the state.
And much of it isdetermined by Texas, one of the most regressive and oppressive state
Funding does impact what, how, and by whom kids are taught. A large portion of education funding is federal.
It appears from my searching 8-10% is federal funding did you see a number somewhere else that was much higher?
I reviewed a bunch of sources from a quick (and not extensive) search, and it looks like it may vary by district, but I’m seeing sources (across different years) with averages as high as 13% and as low as 8%. I don’t know where I was getting my number, but I thought it was more like 43%. Even 13% is shite. 8% is abysmal. So sad.
You were probably thinking of state funding. That’s often right around 43% with the rest being local funding.
Mississippi is subject to the same funding standards as every other state, and is miles behind everyone else. What they choose to do with that money locally is what is affecting outcomes, and it’ll be that way as long as curriculum and standards are set at the local and state level.
I’m not arguing that state and local levels don’t have any impact. There’s no doubt that they do, but imagine if federal funding was double or triple what it is now. The outcomes could be so much better, even in places like MS where the government is actively working against its people.
Edit: I also agree with where you seemed to be heading, which is that there should be some national minimums both or education content and how funding is spent.
blanket federal funding wouldnt mean shit to the bottom states, it would just be ratfucked into the local robber barons coffers like everything else is currently.
fixing mississippi starts by removing the slavers-sons running the state like it’s their personal piggybank, same for pretty much all former slave states.
Yeah, you don’t know what you’re talking about; yet you make a bold statement as if you do. Curriculum is decided by the state and literacy rates can be skewed by the amount of ENL students and citizens you have in your population. The problem is bigger than what this article alludes to. No war except class war. Socioeconomic disparity is the biggest problem in this country, but the people with the money gives us scapegoat after scapegoat and we keep falling for it.
What’s ENL?
They significantly reduced reading comprehension and made a large chunk of the population reliant on smartphones and technology for basic tasks. This timeline sucks.
Meanwhile I vividly recall my 2nd grade teacher giving me a weird look for reading Stephen King in the classroom.
Damn, and I thought I was doing good reading 6 grades above my level.
“Are you smarter than a 6th grader?”
“What? That seems like such a low bar to make a whole game show off of. Wouldn’t it have basically a 100% rate of contestants winning? I mean, they’re using adults. Might be a bit more interesting if they use a bunch of 2nd graders that are said to be gifted.”
(Show comes out)
“…so it appears I was wrong, and this country is fucked.”
(Decades go by, and we’re now in present day)
“See? We’re fucked.”
How many people voted for Trump?
78,000,000/340,000,000 or about 25% of the country
With 36% choosing they didn’t care enough to vote:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_United_States_presidential_election
And I think its 32% or basically 1/3rd of the population that voted for Trump
Edit
Here’s the maths using numbers from the above article so people can tell me where I’m wrong:
77,303,568/((77,303,568+75,019,230)/0.641)
I googled a map of US literacy by county. Interesting view.
I’d love to see a combo map of literacy and who the county voted for in the last presidential election by county.
I mean, I know how it’s going to read but still.
Didn’t I see this post yesterday but it was 81% and 3rd grade level?
