Today's youth do not read because the telephone is a much more affordable form of leisure

2023-08-18 08:12:00, Lifestyle Elisa Silió

Today's youth do not read because the telephone is a much more affordable

Miguel Salas, who has a doctorate in comparative literature, is convinced that in such an aggressive, distracting world, it is a very difficult mission for teenagers to sit down and read. He believes that reading is essential for regaining the ability to concentrate and improving reading comprehension.

In his book The Reading Plan: How to Survive Adolescence Without Stopping Reading, Salas, who has worked at universities in China and Taiwan, suggests that teachers read aloud to their students repeatedly and create a dialogue. with them about classical texts.

While she advises parents to establish a reading time routine - not to use it as a punishment or reward - to visit libraries together (even if they buy books) and not to insist that their children read the same titles they have amazed them once in their youth.

During the financial crisis of 2008, sales of children's books did not fall. But today parents barely read about their children...

Reading is a process that carries a lot of prestige, and no one dares to dispute this. But today we live in a very aggressive environment for reading. We are acquiring new habits, like cell phones, and living life too fast, without thinking about whether we want something or not. So I say it has more to do with the challenges of the time we live in than with a conscious abandonment of reading.

Why do people stop reading in their teens?

They focus more on sharing experiences with friends. The telephone is a much more affordable form of leisure. Watching a 30-second video costs you nothing, but reading a book takes effort, even if the reward that follows is far greater.

In your book you are very critical of social networks...

My students' concentration has dropped tremendously because of smartphones. We touch our mobile approximately 1 thousand times a day and communicate with others about 150 times. Having your cell phone on your desk makes you act like a person with a much lower IQ. Many children who excel in studies practice ballet or music, which require a lot of concentration.

Often they are very aware that they do not remember the short videos they have seen or that they get nervous if there is no change in their daily activity. They watch shows and even listen to music at 1.5x speed because they can't keep up. Nobody listens to a whole song. They always push the little button. And this reduces their attention span.

Therefore it is impossible for them to read a novel?

They read because they have to, but in the end they enjoy it. We at our school take them to the library once a week to read. They can't take their cell phones out there or do any other activity. Most people love this. The most basic thing is a good selection of texts and leaving time to read.

But then they come home tired, and the same thing happens to adults, who turn to their phones again. Reading is the perfect exercise for children to regain their ability to concentrate. It's a fight worth waging in schools, in the face of so many tablets.

Social networks make money by fragmenting attention. I always tell kids that they are the product. Otherwise they would pay for using social media. The idea that social networks are a communication tool is false, they are an advertising tool.

You recommend having a conversation with the teenager before recommending a book title...

It is essential. I always start by asking them. Adults should be interested in their world. And this is very difficult. I have been teaching high school for 11 years. At first I understood the conditions of children, and now it is very difficult for me. I used to understand them because they watched a lot of TV, and we watched the same things from time to time. But now we don't have the same fun as kids. They have it all on YouTube, Tik-Tok...

Are you against the use of cell phones for educational purposes?

The mobile phone is not a work tool. Of course, there you can have as help some tables, e-mail to communicate. But these come along with a host of distractions. I have changed my approach. I used to be enthusiastic about incorporating phones into teaching, but I've come to realize that it steers students in the wrong direction.

They are very happy, but they learn much less. In the next course, I will not upload the lectures online. I have realized that this approach robs young people of their capacity to understand and synthesize ideas. Then when they study the lectures, they don't understand them, because they didn't pay attention in class.

You keep repeating the problem of the lack of reading comprehension at all levels.

If I have no words to name something, that something does not exist for me. In 20 months of life, a baby from a family with a high cultural level can learn 200 words, while another from a family with a low cultural level only 20. This is scandalous.

The latter learn to read late. Even when they start using reading to learn, they are speechless. Many times they don't like to learn. Most of us have discovered the professions we wanted to take in school. But if you are unable to understand, you will never be enthusiastic about anything.

Shouldn't we look for texts that are more in tune with these times and abandon the classics?

Neither one nor the other. Teachers should do a contextualized reading of the classics. Reading books aloud in the classroom has been lost as a practice. The teacher should absorb the classic texts, extract interesting passages and bring them into contact with the students' lives and do this slowly.

However, to do this we would have to separate literature and language into 2 separate subjects. Reading the classics will not create readers. We need to make books as readily available to them as possible, sorted by subject and interest, so that they can pick one up and change it if they don't like it. It's also okay if they read a motorcycle magazine. It is important that they acquire the habit of reading.

In the book, you write, among other things, that reading improves sensitivity...

I think that all of us who are readers have experienced the feeling of being placed in the place of a person who is not related to us. Literature makes you realize that beneath external differences lies a human being./ Adapted from CNA