A Rant about The Man...

I love reading. There’s nothing quite like cracking open a book and immersing yourself in a compelling story. What I love even more is writing. I find that jotting down my wonders, ideas and thoughts is the most calming, and the most stimulating, form of therapy.

But I’m pretty sure most of my peers don’t agree.

In my between-semester-and-already-been-job-hunting-today boredom, I got on Facebook and did some research. I looked at the “Favorite books” of the fifty under-25 Facebook “friends.”

Here’s what I found out:

-25 Friends did not answer the question. Nearly all of these Friends did, however, have answers for “favorite music” and “favorite movies.”

-3 Friends specifically responded by saying that they do not read, or even hate it..

-1 Friend’s only answer was Twilight.

-1 Friend, I assume jokingly, answered Everybody Poops.

-1 Friend’s only answer was Harry Potter.

-19 Friends actually answered with specific books or literary genres.

If 50 of my under-25 Facebook friends are appropriate representatives of our generation, then about 38% of us are “readers.”

I admit, I had very little interest in reading before I was in college.

When you’re in high school, you’re required to read. You're hardly encouraged to take it on as a hobby. It’s just homework. Your teacher shoves texts in your face that were written hundreds of years before the phrase "I couldn't care less" was coined. You dont’t like the book, your teacher probably doesn’t like the book, you have to essentially be told what the hell it means, but you HAVE to write a five-page essay about its themes and symbols. This essay you will inevitably half-ass due to lack of interest. You can’t relate to the books you’re required to read (save Catcher in the Rye, for a lot of folks). Don’t get me wrong—we can't cut out that classics altogether. Everyone needs to read a little Shakespeare, Beowulf and Swift. But guess how many texts that I read for high school English were written in the the 2000's, or even after 1980? I can’t think of one.

This is why kids (as well as folks my age) aren’t interested in reading and writing. They’re shown examples of great literature, but only in texts written during a time in which they are simply not interested. They aren’t taught about the today’s literary atmosphere. Would an aspiring rock musician in the year 2011 be encouraged by his mentors to only listen to Buddy Holly and Elvis Pressley? Would a current stand-out high school football player only watch film of Sammy Baugh and Jim Thorpe?

Whether today's kids' reading and writing abilities are inferior to that the generations prior, I really don't know for sure. I've only been alive 20 years. But if they are, I blame the education system. Or maybe my high school just sucked.