Reading habits are at risk. The younger generation’s reading skills are gone down in recent years. With the rise of television, ipod, internet and IMs, younger generations are loosing out their interest in  plain old reading.

In a new report released by the National Endowment for the Arts makes clear this plummeting reading trends among young people over two decades:

a) Only 30 percent of 13-year-olds read almost every day.

b) The number of 17-year-olds who never read for pleasure increased from 9 percent in 1984 to 19 percent in 2004.

c)Almost half of Americans between ages 18 and 24 never read books for pleasure.

d) The average person between ages 15 and 24 spends 2 to 2 1/2 hours a day watching TV and 7 minutes reading. See detailed story in Boston Globe. Also check out the study at NEA.

I have grown up with comics and books. I still love reading… try to read a wide range of literature - newspaper, magazines, books etc on a wide range of fields. Every time I am at the airports or malls, I find myself being drawn to bookstores almost unconciously. I guess it is a good habit from good old days! Now as a author and writing a regular column in newspapers and websites, I am forced to keep up my reading.

What if younger generation are getting information from other sources? Should it be limited to reading? They are a visual generation and books may not be the greatest form for information dessimination or knowledge acquisition. Will newspapers and books be extinct in few decades or in a centuray. Will we be processing all info over the Internet?  Are we becoming a illiterate society? How will this affect youthwork?

 Something to think about, I guess?

Coconut Generation