Reading skills of high school seniors have gone down a lot over the last few years. According to the NAEP Reading Grade 12 Report Card, “In 2024, the average reading score for the nation at grade 12 was three points lower than in 2019.” This is because of teenagers’ online habits, the pandemic, and the rise of extracurricular activities.
Social media has changed how teenagers take in and process information. Many apps have short videos or clips that are around 15 seconds. This is quick entertainment for teens. Research shows that spending more time on a phone and other devices lowers attention spans. Reading a book does not grab teens’ attention as well as their phones do because of lowered attention spans.
High school students also face busy schedules. Students often have limited free time. This leads to wanting to be on their phones because it is seen as something easy to do to unwind. This may be because students feel burnt out at the end of the day and are looking for an easy way to relax.
A lot of students see reading as a chore, which is probably because students now see books as homework.
Mr. DeLeo, MVHS English teacher said, “I think you it’s because you guys live in an era in a society where everything is immediately available and the promise of reading a book is the promise of going on a journey and you guys have all the information and knowledge of the world at your finger tips that reading and going on a journey have become obsolete.”
If students believe that reading in their free time is not fun, they will never try to find a book that actually interests them.
Access to books is also limited for some students. Teens with more books in their house normally show higher reading levels. Some students only have access to what they read in the classroom. This allows for little selection and limited exposure to different genres that they are actually interested in. If students only have experience with books they find in a classroom that many do not find interesting, they will grow to believe that all books are boring.