Aliteracy and Illiteracy

[dimethylsea]

I recently saw a stat (99% literacy in the US) in an handout for an ECON class I am taking. It struck me as surely inaccurate.. so I asked Google.

Apparently that 99% figure is the self-reported "able to read and write" rate. However some 21% of the US population is "functionally illiterate", in terms of being able to read beyond about a 6th grade level. In other words 1/5th of the population cannot be handed a moderately complex report, document or form and be expected to pull requested information from it.

Now this next bit is REALLY scary (stats are for the US btw) ...

"1/3 of high school graduates never read another book for the rest of their lives.
42 percent of college graduates never read another book after college.
80 percent of U.S. families did not buy or read a book last year.
70 percent of U.S. adults have not been in a bookstore in the last five years. "

1/3 of high school grads never read another book after finishing high school!!!?

What the bloody hell is wrong with peoples' brains?

Now granted these are not statistics that I have been able to verify (which means they are "throwaways" in terms of true evidence)... but it's still enough to make one's spine crawl.

[BJJ-Blue]

Those are scary statistics.

However, maybe it's a little skewed because some people now use audio books and the Internet instead of books. The print media (newspapers and magazines) are seeing their readership decline, yet online news and cable news are not seeing their viewerships drop like the print media has.

[MasterKiller]

Someone has to cook my fries.

[dimethylsea]

Someone has to cook my fries.

You shouldn't eat fries. Neither should I. They are bad for us

Seriously.. there is no way that kind of literacy rate is the product of low IQ. It signifies a vast amount of wasted potential. Think about all the great thinkers you've gone "head to head" with in their finest exposition of their thoughts? That's what reading truly is.

It's one thing to be out in the woods or on a farm and not be big on reading, then you can learn alot from the natural world.. but trapped inside a concrete maze and then be bereft of the *good* points of civilization (i.e. the knowledge and culture) ALSO? Gaaah.

[GeneChing]

I just had some guy ask me how he should publish his book on my fb wall. He got huffy when I suggested he read Wile, telling me he read that book already (Wile has several books) in a grammatically deficient reply. I pointed out the deficiency and he deleted the post. He's probably mad at me. Well, that's another subscriber lost, but hey, what can you do sometimes? Maybe we need to run more photos and less words

The web is expediting the decline in literacy.

[David Jamieson]

It is directly tied to lack of compassion and self absorption. Self absorption is encouraged and lack of compassion is a result of that.

[BJJ-Blue]

The web is expediting the decline in literacy.

Texting is also a big factor if you ask me.

[Lucas]

Texting is also a big factor if you ask me.

i agree, texing is a pretty factor there.

[David Jamieson]

The web is expediting the decline in literacy.

well, it is giving an open door to a lot of people who are not involved in the discipline of writing, but believe there is not much to it and affording them a place to barf up their malformed ideas and even more poorly formed sentences.


As an IT & Web demi-urge who implements content management systems, php/MySQL sites etc etc, I am occasionally faced with a client who will ask me to make it as simple as possible for them to maintain the content.

I've had people ask me to tell it to them like I would tell a 5 year old and here's what I tell them.

"I wouldn't tell this to a five year old, they do not have the skill, education or cognizance to understand what needs to be done here. So, let's set that bar higher and so that it fits more with your capabilities, intelligence and ability to learn quickly, which I am sure is far more impressive than any five year old.

Also, would you really want a web site that was so simple a 5 year old could build it and maintain it for you?

In short, people who think they can do something, without ever having the passion for it and without ever undertaking the discipline required to do it properly are out there pushing out reams of what amounts to crap and drivel.

This is not unlike the nature of the Kung Fu scene these days unfortunately.
I would also add that there are few people who should be writing books about martial arts at all.

A huge portion of books about martial arts are the same thing over and over again with a few photos interspersed. Utter garbage for the most part. But then, every now and then you get a real little gem.

the web isn't hurting literacy as much as complacency and dispassionate world views are. Who cares if Billy is 21 and graduated high school without actually being able to properly read and write for instance?

that's the bitter reality. I, Me, Mine. That's the mantra of the world now.