LinusKatzenbachSecondEssay 2 - 04 Dec 2024 - Main.LinusKatzenbach
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META TOPICPARENT | name="SecondEssay" |
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< < | It is strongly recommended that you include your outline in the body of your essay by using the outline as section titles. The headings below are there to remind you how section and subsection titles are formatted. | | Contextualizing Changing Reading Habits in an Ever-Changing (Internet) Society
-- By LinusKatzenbach - 04 Dec 2024 | |
< < | Intro: Reading habits are changing | > > | Reading habits are changing | | A shockingly large share of 46 percent of Americans didn't read a single book last year, a recent study found. This constitutes not only a decline compared to the past, with only 39 percent of Americans who did not read any book in 1982, but, perhaps even more dramatically, one that can be observed in every group of society regardless of gender, race, education, and age, and which only seems to accelerate in its pace. | | Understanding and making use of this fact requires, first, to explore the reasons for this observed trend (which will be attempted in the first part of this essay), allowing, second, to evaluate this development, and contextualize it with that of society as a whole (forming the second part of this essay). | |
< < | Why are Reading Habits changing? | > > | Why are reading habits changing? | | | |
< < | Subsection A | > > | One often-told (as well as not-new, having been already perceived by Professor Eben Moglen back in 1997, describing the battle of platforms for their attention as a "market for eyeballs") and obvious explanation for the staggering decline of books read especially by younger people is the constant temptation by electronic devices diminishing attention span and making it increasingly difficult for students to focus on longer texts. In an observation conducted by Gloria Mark, who received her Ph.D. from Columbia University in psychology, it was found that the average attention span in 2004 was measured as long as two and a half minutes, and since drastically decreased to 75 seconds in 2012, arriving at a low of about 40 seconds in recent years.
These observations can, at least partly, be explained by the nature of the internet, and especially social media, of having rapidly changing content and constant interruptions making us accustomed to quick sound bites and short videos. As an example, a recent survey has found that the ideal video uploaded on TikTok, teenagers' favorite social platform, has a length between 21 to 34 seconds, with many users saying they find longer videos "stressful". Another finding by Gloria Mark suggests that these interruptions between rapidly changing video have been wired into our brains to an extent that we begin to create them ourselves, most impressively shown by the fact that the average Americans check their phone 144 times a day. | | | |
< < | Subsection B | | Are these changes just reflections of changes in society? |
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LinusKatzenbachSecondEssay 1 - 04 Dec 2024 - Main.LinusKatzenbach
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META TOPICPARENT | name="SecondEssay" |
*!! NOT YET FINISHED !!*
It is strongly recommended that you include your outline in the body of your essay by using the outline as section titles. The headings below are there to remind you how section and subsection titles are formatted.
Contextualizing Changing Reading Habits in an Ever-Changing (Internet) Society
-- By LinusKatzenbach - 04 Dec 2024
Intro: Reading habits are changing
A shockingly large share of 46 percent of Americans didn't read a single book last year, a recent study found. This constitutes not only a decline compared to the past, with only 39 percent of Americans who did not read any book in 1982, but, perhaps even more dramatically, one that can be observed in every group of society regardless of gender, race, education, and age, and which only seems to accelerate in its pace.
Considering the above, taken together with the fact that this steady decline of reading habits is most notably happening among younger members of society, a trend that was likely further accelerated by school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic, it does not come as a particular surprise that Rose Horowitch in a recently published article in The Atlantic, found, by talking to many esteemed professors in the field of literature like Professor Nicholas Dames from Columbia University who has taught Literature Humanities since 1998, that even in highly selective, elite colleges, many students are overwhelmed by reading assignments and have trouble staying focused even on shorter texts.
Understanding and making use of this fact requires, first, to explore the reasons for this observed trend (which will be attempted in the first part of this essay), allowing, second, to evaluate this development, and contextualize it with that of society as a whole (forming the second part of this essay).
Why are Reading Habits changing?
Subsection A
Subsection B
Are these changes just reflections of changes in society?
Conclusion
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