Yes, Reading Online Is Still Reading

from the worry-too-much dept

Every few months it seems we see yet another headline worrying about all the time kids spend online, rather than doing things like "reading books" or writing on paper. This, of course, ignores the fact that most kids today are probably doing a ton more reading and writing than they have at any time in history -- thanks to the fact that so much communication online these days is written. In fact, studies have shown that (believe it or not) kids today are better writers than in the past ("using far more complex sentence structures, a wider vocabulary and a more accurate use of capital letters, punctuation and spelling"). Yet, that doesn't stop articles like this one wondering if online reading and writing really counts as reading and writing. About the best you can say for these articles is that they're people complaining that kids these days read and write differently than in past generations. There's little to no evidence however that kids are any worse off (despite some sensationalist headlines to the contrary). It seems like, as with every generation, there's a group of adults who insist that "these kids today" are somehow dumber because they do things differently.

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