The article in this week's Inbox called "Written Off?" caught my attention immediately after I read the description. A decline in book reading? Well, ok, so that's kind of a "duh" idea. But the article brought up some issues that made me think. The writer focuses a lot on how they think the world of electronics is taking people, especially children, away from the world of books. At one point it mentions the biggest decline in reading is in the age groups of teens and twenty-somethings. They also place this on the increased use of technology, but I am reluctant to accept that. They mention specifically video gamers, but I know a lot of video gamers who still manage to read a heck of a lot more books than me. And personally, my lack of reading is more stemmed from school work than other "after school" activities.
I agree that students need to learn to appreciate reading at a young age, but teachers and everyone else in society need to stop blaming technology for all of this problem. It is just as much the fault of people who ask for the time of young people that we do not have the time to read for pleasure any more.