Are kids these days losing the reading habit?

The Hindu today carried a news item that caught my eye. Incidentally, it had appeared in the New York Times yesterday. [link]

Essentially, what it says is that the habit of reading for pleasure is disappearing among the younger generation. They are either hooked on to their computers, X-Boxes, iPods and other gizmos, or they hang out with their friends. Reading is fast becoming "uncool", and though the Harry Potter phenomenon has helped, it has not quite done enough to arrest the trend.

Although this is neither new nor unexpected, seeing something as a hard statistic rather than a vague gut feeling makes a certain impression. This disturbing trend is not unique to the US. It is quite visible even in India, granted of course that the situation is not as bad.

For practically my whole life, I've been subjected to comments on my addiction to reading. Too many times have I heard some acquaintance of my parents say something like "Are you still reading a book a day? How thick are your glasses now?"

These are the same people whose kids spend as much time watching television as I do reading books and end up with far thicker glasses.

These are the same people who chide their kids to be more like "clever" me who "studied at IIT", never figuring that reading at an early age improves a child's mental faculties.

In the United States, parents lose influence over their children's lives at an early age. So it is not easy to place blame there... it is a somewhat complex social issue. But in India, if someone never got into the reading habit, I would place the blame squarely at their parents' feet. Not that the rest of the world has no role to play, but because parental influence is the easiest controllable factor.

But the complex social issue I was talking about, is that the loss of the reading habit is a small scene in a larger play. American society as a whole seems to be headed on a path of intellectual decline. I am reminded of an article I read in the bulletin of the American Contract Bridge League, talking about how poker seems to be the only card game kids are interested in playing. The game of bridge has precious few takers these days among the younger generation. Bridge simply doesn't offer instant gratification the way poker does. It takes a long time to learn to play well at bridge, and the game is less dramatic. It is infinitely more rewarding - for an intellectual person. There are similar statistics on the decline of participation in chess and in fact, all activities that involve deep thinking.

I really feel that Indian society can easily avoid falling into the same pattern, because of the strong emphasis on academic performance from a young age. If only our school system trained our youth to think instead of learn by rote. If I get into the contrast between the Central Board teaching and testing system vis-a-vis the Tamil Nadu State Board, I will end up talking forever. Suffice to say that I think the two important influences in a child's life in India - school and parents - need to be fixed. A little more awareness, a little more effort, and our country will be so far ahead in the world that nobody can catch up with us.

Cheers,
Prashanth.