from the experience, there are many like that around, and longtime in the comfort zone.
For people on the right and some on the left, I don't think they spend much time and effort at real reading, even online. Sure, they follow videos, FB, short tweets and brief postings online but not in- depth reading of news and issues. People are busy and there's mega entertainment to be distracted by in lieu of news.
What many consume is convenient, quick, easy to digest, filled with additives and low quality- Junk News & Info. 'Real news' is hard, more time consuming, kind of like 'real cooking,' and far healthier of course.
- .."IS OUR CHILDREN LEARNING?"
'Info.' taken in by word of mouth, and from following audio/visual media - radio, TV, videos is what many folks of diverse backgrounds absorb even if they don't want to admit it. And that's the way so much news and information is packaged and presented nowdays.
Oral/verbal communication by listening to others and absorbing audio-visual material is far more personal, emotional, digestible and easy to understand for many folks than serious print reading, a very different intellectual process. Note the success of Hate Radio. And in Fla., some rw propaganda online & directed to hispanics is piped in from So. America mainly on social media.
=========
*See 'America the Iliterate,' by Chris Hedges. A tough read but a lot of truth.
- Chris Hedges and Literacy, WYSU, 2010 -
https://wysu.org/content/commentary/chris-hedges-and-literacy
.. Hedges, a recipient of the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for his reporting on global terrorism, takes a sober look at literacy in America. His book is fundamentally a literacy report card and he gives America an F. Consider these facts which Hedges cites:
- 7 million Americans are illiterate and the number grows by 2 million a year
- 30 million Americans cannot read a sentence
- Among those who read, 50 million read at the 4th to 5th grade level
- In 2007, 80% of U.S. families did not buy or read a book
- One-third of those Americans who graduate from high school never read a single book after high school for the rest of their lives, and 42% of those who graduate from college never read a single book after college for the rest of their lives.
These jarring facts lead Hedges to indict our schools and colleges for training students to be compliant, money-driven careerists instead of critical thinkers who value autonomy and curiosity and who see the need to challenge the idols of the tribe. If Americans care little today about the pursuit of knowledge through books, magazines, and newspapers, what do we care about? Hedges claims that most of us care about entertainment in order to escape from reality...
=========
For many people in America, reading habits and reading levels have sadly declined significantly in the last 40+ years. We know how and why. It's serious and dangerous.
= new reply since forum marked as read
