National Literacy Trust finds only 35% of eight to 18-year-olds enjoy reading in their spare time, a sharp drop on last year to the lowest figure yet recorded

Children’s reading enjoyment has fallen to its lowest level in almost two decades, with just one in three young people saying that they enjoy reading in their free time, according to a new survey.

Only 34.6% of eight- to 18-year-olds surveyed by the National Literacy Trust (NLT) said that they enjoy reading in their spare time. This is the lowest level recorded by the charity since it began surveying children about their reading habits 19 years ago, representing an 8.8 percentage point drop since last year.

It is also part of a broader downward trend since 2016, when almost two in three children said that they enjoyed reading.

  • t3rmit3@beehaw.org
    0·
    9 hours ago

    I’m always interested to see exactly what is included and excluded from their definition of reading. On average, most adults actually read more today that we did in the 90s, if you’re purely talking words of text consumed. Are graphic novels being included in these stats? Short stories? Social media threads? Most people even watch videos/tv/movies with subtitles they read now, which was not something that was an option before.

    The actual article text never says the word “book” once, but I strongly suspect that is all that’s being counted.

    • iagomago@feddit.it
      0·
      8 hours ago

      As a teacher in lower secondary school, kids don’t do any of that. They read physical media sporadically, and the main kind of digital media they consume is through IG and TikTok, furtherly filtered by the algorithm to appeal to their interest. The only kind of excitement I see in their eyes when talking reading is when talking manga, but even then it’s mostly because they got there through anime (dubbed, so not even with subs) first. Kids don’t read half as often as we did twenty years ago, and teachers get the blame for trying to push some sense in them through lecture.

      • Vodulas [they/them]@beehaw.org
        0·
        8 hours ago

        So there can’t be educational graphic novels, short stories, TV, movies? Hell there is even educational content to be found on social media if you look

      • t3rmit3@beehaw.org
        0·
        9 hours ago

        Given that there are plenty of pro-consumerism schlocky books (if not the majority, being that most are just entertainment-targeted consumer goods), and plenty of highly educational non-book texts, this doesn’t really mean anything.