Readers Today

The reader survey questions covered a spectrum of inquiry ranging from reading habits to book preferences to daily activities. The general conclusions reached were that yes, students at TCU enjoy reading; no, they do not read terribly often (beyond class work); yes, they prefer hardback to e-book (purportedly); and YES, they waste amazing amounts of time. (Though we have to acknowledge that, as a class of English and Writing majors and minors, our idea of well-spent free time are likely very different from many others.)

I have a few issues with the survey:

First off, the samples were hardly representative of the actual average. We interviewed only TCU students, and even though we may have gone outside our friend circles, I doubt very many of us actually walked up to people we had zero connections with. Even if we had, TCU has a very specific demographic--generally, we were most likely to end up with people who would check the same boxes at the doctor's office. I also felt as if we were condemning students for not reading enough. The questions themselves may have shamed respondents into giving us inaccurate answers.

Second, we have to give students a bit of a break. While in school and classes, a lot of us simply don't have time to read for pleasure. I know I have two reading-intensive majors; I'm lucky to get what I need for class done most days. If we do manage to get our reading done, a lot of us need to step away and do another activity for a little while. It is asking quite a lot for somebody to follow five hours of required reading with three hours of pleasure reading. Yes, we have free time that we waste, but most of this free time is in 5 to 15 minute intervals--just enough to check Facebook or watch a quick YouTube video. These breaks are just something to break up periods of intense mental activity.

Granted, these are largely assumptions I'm making about the TCU student, assumptions based on my personal experiences. BUT the fact remains that we didn't question enough students closely enough to really know there relationship with reading. It seems to me that we are crying 'Wolf' just a touch too early. Reading is changing, readers are changing, but I think it is far too early to predict reading's demise.

I don't think the elements of language and reading are disappearing. I think the voices of people without the ability/care/instruction regarding language are louder--made so by social media. Before, the people who had a public voice were well-read and well-spoken. Now, where everybody can have a public voice, the illiterate are just more in your face.

We need to promote reading and literature as much as possible because they are important. We also need to be careful not to overgeneralize about reading habits.