of reading ensures that different
regions of our brains are developed.
Interestingly, recent statistics
suggest that the number of books
adults (18+) read has remained fairly
level since 2011, when Pew began
tracking this. 4 Data also suggest that
teenagers and “tweens” (8-12 years
old) are spending a similar number
of minutes reading per day as in
2015. 5 The authors of the Common
Sense Census speculate that we
may be seeing a “period of relative
stability” after “a period of rapid and
revolutionary change.” 6 Our Saint
David’s School Library statistics
show a supportive trend: steady
growth in book borrowing over the
past five years. However, studies
that look at previous generations
illustrate what many suspect: a
significant reduction in reading
While a “skimming pattern” of
reading is mentioned in the context
of the digital divide, it is actually a
risk that we all face. Increasingly,
scholars are observing that adults
and children approach left-to-right
text blocks by skating across the
top and then cruising down the
left in an “F” pattern, or bouncing
back and forth in a “Z” pattern
looking for keywords. 11 While this
is an efficient way to get the gist of
a simple piece of writing, it is not an
effective way to wrestle with deep
or challenging concepts. When
readers apply this style to longer
texts, they miss details and risk
fundamentally misunderstanding
sophisticated arguments. This is
already noticeable among adults
who have grown up in a pre-
digital age, and it is particularly
“Research affirms that reading longer pieces provides significant
benefits to the brain. These include the development of complex
thinking skills, empathy, and distinct mental maps of information.”
between the 1970s and today, most noticeable around the
years in which smartphones and tablet devices became
widespread. 7 However, hidden behind reported book counts
and reading minutes are additional trends that should
concern us.
The first of these is the persistence of gaps that existed
well before the advent of tablets and smartphones. One of
these is a significant difference in the reading habits of boys
and girls. This gender gap, described by Michael Sullivan
and others almost two decades ago, 8 has continued into the
most recent Pew statistics. These show a difference in the
number of books read by adult men in all age categories,
educational levels, ethnic groups, and income brackets when
compared to women. Another is a continued digital divide,
in which children in less affluent homes are more likely to
use lower-quality devices and apps that reinforce disjointed,
skimming habits of consumption, and they are more likely to
use online media without adult monitoring or mentorship. 9
In this way, the present-day digital divide actually feeds a
literacy gap. Combined with other variables, these issues
lead to a state in which Maryanne Wolf estimates that only a
third of fourth-grade students nationwide are reading “with
sufficient understanding and speed...” 10
concerning for children who have not yet developed deep
reading brain circuits in the first place. Skimming not only
predisposes us to see only what we are looking for; it also
robs us of the processing time that our brains need to notice
contradictions and build new understandings. In order to
truly understand the health of reading in our society, we
need to monitor not the number of books bought, borrowed
or read, but our ability to match reading styles to situations
appropriately.
So, what is a teacher, parent, or reader to do? Given
that deep reading provides unique benefits, and is indeed
vulnerable at this moment, how can we preserve what
is valuable while adopting what is new? Several tangible
strategies suggest themselves. Many of these will be familiar
as the strategies that promoted literacy within previous
generations, but they are worthy of renewed attention in a
distracted, digital age.
The first of these, somewhat unsurprisingly, is to continue
to make space for reading in our lives. “Our” includes all
of us: adults and children, men and women, and humans
of all sorts. As technology becomes more distracting, this
requires more mindfulness than ever before. Making a plan
to read (much as we might plan exercise), outsmarting our
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