The proportion of 13-year-old students who say they "read for fun" almost every day has roughly halved since 1984, according to new data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress report. If you're a big reading advocate, you'll be even more worried by the statistic that 29% of American 13-year-olds now "never or hardly ever" read for fun — a proportion that has more than tripled since 1984.
A picture is worth a thousand words
It's easy to blame the rise of screens, the internet or more TV for the slow demise of "reading for fun". If a picture is worth a thousand words, and a TV show or movie has at least 24 frames per second... you get the idea. Reading for fun has stiff competition, and it's probably only going to get more intense.
