Techno-trends author Steven Johnson offers a critical response to the idea (and the NEA report advancing the idea) that Americans are reading less now than they used to. The NEA study, released last November (available for download here), raised media concern and national discussion about the demise of voluntary reading. Said NEA Chair Dana Gioia in the press release about the report:
“This study shows the startling declines, in how much and how well Americans read, that are adversely affecting this country’s culture, economy, and civic life as well as our children’s educational achievement.”
In his recent rebuttal to the study in The Guardian, Johnson raises two primary concerns: First, he doesn’t think the data actually shows the negative impact of the proposed decline (and actually shows improvement of some indicators among certain age groups). But more importantly, he decries the fact that none of the studies cited include on-line reading in their analysis. Says Johnson:
Simply excising screen-based reading from the study altogether is like doing a literacy survey circa 1500 and only counting the amount of time people spent reading scrolls.
So, are Americans reading less or reading more? Are we writing less or writing more? Are we listening to less music or more music? Are we more aesthetically aware or less? Are we more or less sensitive to issues of design?
These are fairly important questions for the cultural industries. It might be worth trying to explore the answers in full.
UPDATE OF 2/20/2008: The current and former directors of the NEA’s Office of Research & Analysis posted a rebuttal to Johnson’s rebuttal in today’s edition of The Guardian that disputes Johnson’s counterpoints and reinforces the findings of the original study. Worth a read.
