See on Scoop.it – Cultural evolution
The number of children picking up books in their spare time has dropped dramatically amid claims youngsters increasingly see reading as “embarrassing”, according to research.
Earlier I posted an article on the effects of literature. If you read that, before turning to this research about declining numbers of children reading, because that’s just not cool, you know as well as I that we have a real problem.
How can a culture continue itself, replicate itself throughout time, if it’s carriers (humans) avoid contact with it? (Of course, I’m using a kind of ‘culture is a virus’-metaphor here, but let’s not get into that right now.) You could argue that culture adapts, that humans adapt: there are other ways to transmit ideas: television, the internet, etc. But do we get the same effect from reading a truly great novel as from watching the latest ‘fake reality show’? Do we want our children get their take on the world from Roald Dahl or from Disney Channel?
See on www.telegraph.co.uk
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