> Folks read a lot of newspapers back then!
Well, there was no internet back then.
It wouldn't surprise me of we are actually consuming more (written) content in 2018 then we did in 1946.
Well, there was no internet back then.
It wouldn't surprise me of we are actually consuming more (written) content in 2018 then we did in 1946.
As we are littered by content via our always-on lifestyles, we tend only to skim and read shallow stuff, or stuff that's gonna help us get by our current hurdles. That odd quick read on StackOverflow counts as that too.
Sitting down and actually grasping a full book is becoming a rare skill, because of this imposed-adhd lifestyle of ever-greater everything.
Nope. People are more literate today than 70 years ago. People are better educated today and have more schooling. On average, more people have read a full book than before.
Strange to think that people are nostalgic for an era were women ( half the population ) were discouraged from going to college and minorities were denied equal access to education. Even stranger that people think that people were better educated then.
It's statistically impossible for your version of the past to be true.
Our mobile phone literary is more akin to oral language in form and complexity than long form literature or technical writing.
There are tons of other dubious and dire socioeconomic "firsts" for this generation that would affect such scores. Sugar packed, nutritionally light, chemically flavored foodstuffs. Totally-Not-poverty. 60 hour work weeks across multiple jobs...
Proof by insistence? When you see the written reports the kids produce at my university you can only disagree violently. Two or three years in, and they still have no command of their own native language. If they read books or the daily paper you'd expect them to pick up proper usage by osmosis, but no, not here, not at this regional 4-year college.
Proof by statistics and facts. Hardly any women went to college back then. So that's about 50% of the population who were less educated. Thrown in minorities who were discouraged from getting an education, it's statistical fact.
Perhaps if you bothered to read my comment rather than jumping to complain about your students...
"Strange to think that people are nostalgic for an era were women ( half the population ) were discouraged from going to college and minorities were denied equal access to education."
> When you see the written reports the kids produce at my university you can only disagree violently.
Sure, the overall quality of the student body is lower because far more people attend college. But overall, the education level is higher collectively.
Also, instead of blaming technology, have you considered the quality of educators have declined markedly?
My brother, who teaches a college class or two as an adjunct, complains of undergraduate writing. On the other hand, I can say that I was a copy editor long ago, and there were many Ph.D.s back then who couldn't write a clear paragraph.
The noneducated got largely forgotten because they left little trace. Go to a retirement home and ask about what they did for a living and how much education they had - you will find a very high percentage without even a high school diploma - and that is the recent enough that they are still alive past.
Look at the internet - when it was just universities everyone was more technically knowledgeable but now that it is widespread and accessible there is a broader range. That doesn't mean that technical adeptness is going down.
Sorry to burst your bubble that "kids these days..."
And no, not everyone pick writing ability by osmosis. Some do, others don't. Speaking as someone who read a lot and wrote badly.
And also, past tended to have heavy censorship so sex and such were less in picture.