Illiteracy epidemic - brain rot kids

[integral]

Kids are entering the fourth fifth and sixth grade being unable to read or write and have absolutely no attention span or ability to comprehend basic things.

They must be stimulated by their phone nonstop

When I grew up, I was able to just sit and do nothing, those days are long gone

Edited May 17 by integral

[The Crocodile]

??hle

[Puer Aeternus]

In the U.S. not only is there the attention span shortening brain rot BUT it goes deeper than just that. It's a very interesting case study.

 

There's a good chance that many of these kids haven't been given any effective tools to learn to read. In the beginning you probably learned to read with phonics, AKA sounding out a word! The letters, the syllables, and it worked just fine.

 

However, due to academic corruption this method has been undermined by a few academics who have introduced a newer, shittier method that is more just memorization and trying to guess the meaning using context. This new method creates a mirage of understanding. Some kids make it out okay, others fall behind- and can't really read. Can't really write. 

 

Of course because the theory is presented by PhDs and "experts" English teachers just eat it up and run it in their classrooms, it becomes standard curriculum mostly without much of a second thought. The inner circle of academics behind the new method monetize this and milk MILLIONS of dollars out of it. And of course, millions of American schoolchildren develop questionable reading abilities that could handicap them for the rest of their lives if not addressed.

 

If you want to learn more about this, there's an investigative journalism podcast series on the subject. Highly recommend it.

 

Here's a trailer for it!

 

 

You can listen to the series on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or this website. Sadly no YouTube.

https://features.apmreports.org/sold-a-story/

 

 

[Hojo]

@Puer AeternusTo me like you said they are confusing children on purpose. They got weird new ways to do math that arent better or easier and seem more complex and complicated for no reason. Parents cant even help their children with homework because they have no idea how to help them.

Theres no way this accumilation isnt happening on purpose. You cant fuck up this hard on accident.

Edited May 17 by Hojo

[Puer Aeternus]

@Hojo If you're suggesting it's a grand conspiracy to intentionally make kids/people dumber, I just don't think so. I'll never throw it out 100%. BUT

 

I just think it's corruption and institutions being fallible. Definitely not helped with shall we say, the continuing movement into stage orange. 

 

There's always a risk of grifters and nefarious people hijacking things for their own personal benefit. I've studied too many different case studies and just see it happen over and over again. 

 

It's like a law of physics that people are just big silly idiots. Bribable, self-deceived, fearful, self-interested, naive. Most aren't quote on quote "bad people" but are just floating along on the whims of emotional and social influences they don't recognize. Absorbing information without many questions asked and struggling with the emotional weight of admitting "I was wrong" which many just never will.

 

It's much more comforting to blame some small group of manipulative elites! Get rid of the guys at the top, it'll solve itself! Naaaah, reality is much more of a wicked beast to deal with than that. It's more fundamental. It is us.

[Emerald]

While I'm sure that kids are struggling attention-span-wise... the literacy issues are certainly not a new phenomenon.

I was a teacher 10 years ago (and a substitute teacher prior to that)... and there are and have always been a sizable minority of high schoolers that still read at an elementary school level.

And that is NOT typically because of external factors.

It's just that there's a high degree of variability relative to innate skills and aptitudes relative to particular subject matters.

I've worked with very dedicated students that had to work the butts off to get a D.

And I've worked with slackers who skate by with As.

So, these issues have always been going on. And these same narratives keep framing the current youth as uniquely harmed and stunted by the culture have always been going on since humanity has been around.

But the reality is that there have always been kids who leave high school not knowing how to read very well... and there always will be.

There are certainly improvements to be made. But we should get really realistic about what peoples' capabilities are without scapegoating a whole generation.

It would be like if school was centered around how well people played basketball and always had been.

And then, there would be all these articles like "Did you know there are kids leaving high school that don't even know how to do a lay-up?!?! It must be because of smart phones!"

But the reality is that there would be short people (like me) who would just never get very good at basketball no matter how hard we tried. And there always had been... and these same alarmist generation-scapegoating narratives have been used on back and back and back.

[Natasha Tori Maru]

I think it is a symptom of a greater problem arising - technology is advancing faster than our ability to manage & utilize it for growth.

These newer generations of kids are the product of Millennials - of which I myself am one.

Unmoderated use of phones/technology as entertainment devices has sledgehammered our attention span. This is a new technology, and newer generations haven't had anyone to assist them in knowing how/what/when these tools should be used, and when they are becoming a corrupting force. The effects are subtle, but accumulate until you are malfunctioning. And I use that word, as we are at this point in time, cyborgs. Our phones are extensions of ourselves. 

It is the current generations raising children that need to lead the charge moderating phone/tech use - their own, and their kids. There aren't guidelines out there illustrating how to titrate technology into children's lives. There is no wisdom being passed down.

My sister has this very issue with her own child - she is so entrenched in her phone/media she cannot moderate herself. And so, her son is a product of this. Severe issues. Unrestricted screens.

Some parents do it right, for sure, but from my sister in laws anecdotes (she is a primary school teacher) its uncommon.

 

Edited May 17 by Natasha Tori Maru

[Apparition of Jack]

It’s the Pandemic, stupid! 

All of these negative trends - teenage illiteracy, increased anti-social behaviour, incredibly high rates of mental illness - can all be traced to the collective trauma of the pandemic. For about two years the entire world was shuttered inside, forced to communicate online, devoid of all other human contact and for most people faced with the prospect of sickness and mortality for the first time in their lives. This wouldve hit doubly hard for children. 

It was barely five years ago and we haven’t barely even spoken a whisper about it since. For society to stop self-destructing we first all need to admit how much it fucked us all up, lol. 

[Puer Aeternus]

Muy interesante 

 

I guess as usual, you can't just say it's one thing. @Emerald thanks for chiming in with your direct experience of things, that it was never really perfect. That stuff like this has happened before in the past!

 

It isn't just x thing, but rather all these things.. method of instruction, the effects of lockdown, addictive phones all have their own impact on some already innate level of talent. It doesn't affect people the same across the board but it DOES do something. We can replace one ingredient and make it more high quality, but if the others still suck. You're still gonna have problems.

[Lyubov]

It’s been said but in the USA we have had lower literacy levels across the board. I struggled a lot to read growing up coming from a broken family and needing emotional help I wasn’t given. It’s common for many kids in this country to struggle with reading. At my time they had a Bush law called “no child left behind” which didn’t help much and then they did the whole “common core” thing which also got a ton of criticism. So yeah eduction in the USA has always had its problems. 
 

As for focusing, I’m not sure the iPads are 100% the problem. We had academics and pharmaceutical interests poking into education and pushing for ADHD medications for kids. I was given this for not focusing. A lot of scientists and pharmaceutical interests look for problems to solve sometimes that stem simple from living in a society that pushes white collar and education as a means to an end. In fact they used to say if you flunk school you will have to go be a plumber or something like this, which now due to labor shortages is an incredibly high paying job. So I’m sometimes skeptical when someone yells “think of the children.” How about we don’t hoard wealth and pour money into raising our kids, healthcare, free education and infrastructure? That will help kids more than any sort of special interest fear mongering which wants to sell some pills. 

[Joshe]

I think a lot of it has to do with the parents values, attention spans, and the things they model for their children. And this is only exacerbated by ideological divide. Charter and Christian schools are on the rise.

My nephews were put in some ridiculous Christian school. They’re in 5, 6th grade. I could read and spell better than them when I was in grade 2. I was above average but still, not good. I chalk it up to their parents caring more about Christianity than anything else. The parents just plan on having them work in the trades, so they figure they don’t need good education. 

[Leo Gura]

14 hours ago, Emerald said:

It must be because of smart phones!"

Smart phones and social media present a new unique challenge that never existed before. Attention spans are dropping and internet addiction is real.

[Husseinisdoingfine]

I personally know someone who utterly tanked their grades in high school solely because of their computer game addiction. I mean -- all F's. 

They were later able to redeem themselves by doing very good in a Community College, allowing themselves to get into a decent University.

But another person I know is currently in his 4th year of Community College, its supposed to only take 2 years, because of his computer gaming addiction. 

Edited May 17 by Husseinisdoingfine

[Emerald]

53 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

Smart phones and social media present a new unique challenge that never existed before. Attention spans are dropping and internet addiction is real.

Those things are real and unique to this era compared to eras before it. And they present real social and emotional challenges. And you can notice that children and teens struggle more with social skills.

But there have always been and will always be literacy struggles among a percentage of the population as innate aptitudes vary.

Go back 10, 20, 30, 40+ years and you will find tons of high schoolers who read at an elementary school level. It's not a new phenomenon at all.

With regard to the literacy levels of 12th graders who are deemed "proficient" at reading based on NAEP standards...  the percentage of proficient readers has stayed pretty steady within a few percentage points of the 40% mark. (They've been taking this data since 1992 and the graph is posted below).

It may be shocking to acknowledge for those who haven't worked in education who first enter the profession and see how many kids really struggle. And this may cause these unseasoned teacher to assume it must be something environmental or circumstantial that's causing the issue... as that is a more comforting story that feels like it has a solution.

But people struggling with reading proficiency is nothing new. And the phone and new tech is a good scape-goat to blame for those problems... just as the tv was blamed in previous generations. Even reading itself was blamed for all manner of problems, prior to the tv.

And I don't buy for a second that the current youth generation is less equipped than previous generations to learn or handle adult challenges... with the exception of building in-person social relationships.

Older generations always believe the younger generation is going to hell in a hand-basket. 

Edited May 17 by Emerald

[Natasha Tori Maru]

@Emerald

'And I don't buy for a second that the current youth generation is less equipped than previous generations to learn or handle adult challenges... with the exception of building in-person social relationships'

I think maybe the greater point that isn't undermining this statement: We as a previous generation are not handling the challenges. We are addicted to technology, suckling at its teat. Man instinctively reaches for technology with zero hesitation. This goes up to the boomers and gen X also.

I don't know many of my own generation who aren't addicted to the internet, as an example. I include myself in this lot. Smartphone addiction is an issue most of us have or will struggle with - so I view the adults being unable to moderate use, filtering down to younger generations also. Smartphones represent a gateway to the internet. You can see it on the streets - people walking smartphone in hand. We aren't handling it at all. And it has become an adult challenge ingrained in modern society.

I really admire that the younger generations are coming into this world more aware - there are movements that are emphasizing technology abstinence/moderation.

If your statement above was only relating to literacy forgive me, as my point is a sidetrack for sure.

I do have one question - has the standard level of proficiency been altered at all, or has this been the same through all data history?

[Emerald]

29 minutes ago, Natasha Tori Maru said:

@Emerald

'And I don't buy for a second that the current youth generation is less equipped than previous generations to learn or handle adult challenges... with the exception of building in-person social relationships'

I think maybe the greater point that isn't undermining this statement: We as a previous generation are not handling the challenges. We are addicted to technology, suckling at its teat. Man instinctively reaches for technology with zero hesitation. This goes up to the boomers and gen X also.

I don't know many of my own generation who aren't addicted to the internet, as an example. I include myself in this lot. Smartphone addiction is an issue most of us have or will struggle with - so I view the adults being unable to moderate use, filtering down to younger generations also. Smartphones represent a gateway to the internet. You can see it on the streets - people walking smartphone in hand. We aren't handling it at all. And it has become an adult challenge ingrained in modern society.

I really admire that the younger generations are coming into this world more aware - there are movements that are emphasizing technology abstinence/moderation.

If your statement above was only relating to literacy forgive me, as my point is a sidetrack for sure.

I do have one question - has the standard level of proficiency been altered at all, or has this been the same through all data history?

They have been keeping the data since 1992, and it has been within a few percentage points since then. So, there's no marked change in literacy during the time they've been collecting the data.

But for sure, there are unique challenges with regards to the use of technology. And certainly addiction to devices is one of those things.

And I do believe that younger people will be more proficient at handling it compared to older generations... in the same way that people in my generation are better than people in my parents generation at picking out internet misinformation.

The main problem that I see arising from the increase in technology is the decrease in opportunities for 1-1 socialization, as everything has moved online.

But as far as intellect goes, there is no marked difference between elementary/middle/high school students I went to school with 20ish years ago, elementary/middle/high school students I used to teach 10 years ago, and my children's elementary and middle school classmates who are in school now.

And I think it's important not to fall into the same trap that people from older generations always have in terms of believing the younger generation to be uniquely ill-equipped to handle the world.

This is mostly because they never had an accurate whole-picture perspective of how their generation was in the first place... and so they believe the new generations to be uniquely lacking.

[Girzo]

I teach kids. The ones with more restrictions on their phone usage perform better, but I believe it's correlated with how much their parents push them to learn in their free time and not directly through whatever the effects of using the Internet less are. There's a chance that if your parents limit your Internet access they would be more strict in general and that pushes those who are highly unmotivated by default.

[Natasha Tori Maru]

41 minutes ago, Girzo said:

I teach kids. The ones with more restrictions on their phone usage perform better, but I believe it's correlated with how much their parents push them to learn in their free time and not directly through whatever the effects of using the Internet less are. There's a chance that if your parents limit your Internet access they would be more strict in general and that pushes those who are highly unmotivated by default.

This is my observed experience with my sister and her partner. They don't have time to devote to reinforcing schooling and education at home. Their technology addiction is stopping the attention that would otherwise naturally be placed on the little one. 

They are chasing an outlet, a way to relax, so they default to phones instead of attention to their boy. 

I'm not sure what goes on in other family units. Just my anecdote