To call the current literacy situation with teenagers a crisis would be an understatement. A crisis implies a critical event, but it also implies that it is recognized and that necessary steps are in place to ensure it is addressed. The unfolding literacy crisis sweeping across America isn’t being addressed.
The problem with literacy and our youth is the blatant lack of recognition (or acceptance) for the depth of the underlying issue, how prevalent it is throughout our culture, the impact that it’s having mentally and physically on our young adults and teenagers, and what should be done to resolve it. We move along blindly, periodically pointing fingers at the education system, government programs, the influence of technology, and overall degradation of social skills, but how do we get to the core of the issue, and what can we do to change the course of direction?
The first hurdle is to accept the problem, which is clearly the overuse of social media and the influence it has on our youth. An estimated 95% of content pushed to teenagers through social media is delivered via sophisticated algorithms. These algorithms intentionally seek out sensationalized content, whether true events or AI-generated, intended to provoke the highest emotional response. This delivers a dopamine hit, a temporary feeling of feeling good. It works in the brain the same way as a drug, and this is intentional.
Young minds are vulnerable to emotional content, and the developers behind the algorithms know this. Algorithms intentionally narrow their worldview by funneling emotional content based on search or viewing behavior. Watch a race-based fight in a parking lot? They’ll receive streams of similar types of related content. The implication is that this behavior is prevalent across society, and it becomes normalized. Teenagers spend hours daily watching 10-second clips of different variations of the same negative, mind-altering content, every day. Are we surprised by the impact on their individual development and society at the macro level?
Over time, this can normalize fringe and extreme behavior, and this is among the worst ramifications of algorithmic mental conditioning. Absurdness becomes accepted as normal if a teenager is led to believe many others are viewing and participating in the same behavior. This leads to technology-induced herd mentality. Everyone is a… (insert today’s label!). Everyone vapes! Everyone does dangerous stunts and acts! It’s not that everyone is truly any of those things; it’s that the viewer is only receiving a narrowly and purposefully controlled slice of reality.
Before algorithmic programming, teenagers were eclectic. They were subject to different genres of music, books, art, and opinions. They did their own thing. Now they are “told” by the algorithm, through suggestive content funneling, what to think and do. If they listen to an explicit song, they will now receive hundreds of the same type. Before long, that is all they are listening to because of the algorithmic recommendations. The more extreme the behavior or content, the more likely it will get pushed to viewers. What was fringe, erratic, and unacceptable yesterday becomes normalized today, leading the way for even more fringe, erratic, and unacceptable behavior tomorrow. Young people are being driven to extremes, and we’re allowing it to happen.
Books are different. Reading and literature affect the brain differently. Books are based on character development, problem solving, focus and attention, historical context, vocabulary, and most importantly, creativity and imagination.
Reading is the antithesis of what kids are getting from staring at 10-second clips on a device for hours every day. Reading is ingrained in mental development because processing language and written words is programmed into our DNA. A comprehensive study found that children who are read to at an early age recognize hundreds of thousands more words by kindergarten, versus a child who has not been read to. This demonstrates how much the brains of babies and children absorb reading and literary formats.
This is a problem we can solve, and it’s one that we have to solve. We have a clearer understanding of the problem, but how do we address it? Like most social problems, the solution starts in the home. Parental instincts usually are keen to identify imbalances within the family structure and threats to their children. Social media algorithms should be viewed at least partially as threats – to a child’s education, worldview, and mental health. If your child spends hours every day on their device looking at social media, how much is too much?
One of the first things parents can do is run a report of their child’s online usage. All phone carriers and social media platforms will show metrics of application usage. Parents then need to decide what the right balance is. Is a couple of hours a day the right amount? More? Less? Every household is different, but the key takeaway is that if we know spending time embedded in social media is impacting their social development, isn’t less better? Once we decide on the right balance, we can take the right steps to remediate the problem.
LitNation – Step 1: From our research, the best thing a parent can do within the household is require time blocking. Have your child put down their device and pick up a book. You can set a limit, e.g., at night from 7-7:30 p.m. is “read time.” It can be 10 minutes, 30 minutes, or an hour. If they are resistant, you can start with a small limit.
When I was researching for my book Run Your Body Like a Business, I spent many months at a Buddhist temple in Thailand. When foreigners come to a Buddhist retreat, they can’t imagine sitting for hours doing meditation. The monks' solution? A very simple one: they give each foreigner a stopwatch to wear around their neck. They tell foreigners to start with 10 minutes, then evolve to 20, 30, etc. Before long, they are meditating for hours. The most important thing is getting started by changing bad habits into good habits.
LitNation – Step 2: One thing we’ve learned is that not only should children time block, but they should also have a degree of separation from their device. If they are reading with their device beside them, and it is making distracting noises every few seconds because of posts or chats, they cannot concentrate and spend most of the time checking their phone. Have reading allocated for one part of the house while the device is in another. It’s important for their concentration and focus.
LitNation – Step 3: The last important point is to provide exceptional content. If a young reader gets enthralled with a book, they are much more likely to want to continue reading. As an author, I have written a book series for young adults that is a phenomenal action/adventure story that they will love. Along with this, you can feel comfortable that the book has no sexually explicit content and a strong focus on traditional values, such as family, faith, and our military. It requires critical thinking and has characters that are fun, interesting, and exciting to read about. But the point is to locate books that interest your reader. Try different subjects and different authors until they find their rhythm and start to make reading part of their everyday lives.
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