Reading a dying habit for Generation YouTube: UK study

LONDON — Children growing up in the age of YouTube are increasingly shunning books, according to a United Kingdom study which shows that the number of kids who read outside school has fallen by a quarter since 2005.

A UK National Literacy Trust study of 34,910 young people found that nearly a third of children between the ages of eight and 16 said they read no text-based media at all in their daily leisure time. Only 28.4 per cent claimed to read in their own time every day last year, down from 38.1 per cent who read outside school in 2005.

For Mr Jonathan Douglas, Director of the trust, this decline “is a significant social and cultural trend which needs to be addressed”.

“There’s a really strong relationship between literacy — reading and writing — and social outcomes, whether it’s income, home ownership, voting or a sense of trust in society,” he said. “If children are not practising reading, they will miss out.”

This year’s study confirms a trend that began to show two years ago, that reading and writing are being shunned in favour of video-based communications. “Originally we thought children’s reading was migrating from print to digital — that they were using Messenger and reading e-books. But, increasingly, they are consuming information in ways that do not involve reading or writing,” said Mr Douglas.

Attitudes to reading have also become more negative over time, with 21.5 per cent of young people agreeing with the statement “I would be embarrassed if my friends saw me read”, up from 16.6 per cent in the 2010 study.

Mr Douglas, a former children’s librarian at Westminster Libraries, added: “We can all remember how crippling embarrassment is as a teenager. For young people, it’s one of the big things. A significant increase in this dynamic is worrying. Peer pressure can be so great that, even when you’re not in a peer group, you may continue with behaviours that you want to construct your identity. We want reading to be a part of youth culture, and not seen as something that’s just for middle-aged, middle-class people.”

He also pointed to a dearth of engaging reading materials, especially for boys. Among them, 35 per cent agreed with the statement “I cannot find things to read that interest me”, compared with 26 per cent of girls. For boys on free school meals in the UK, it was 39 per cent.

Mr Douglas added: “Is that to do with under-investment in public libraries? Certainly, part of it is about what’s being published, while part is about what teachers and librarians are choosing. Are we promoting materials for boys — those from disadvantaged backgrounds in particular?”

When asked if they agreed with the statement “Reading is more for girls than boys”, 16.2 per cent of children concurred, up from 15.2 per cent in 2010, with boys more likely to agree than girls. The Guardian