Is reading dying or is it already dead?
Photo by Corey Blaz on Unsplash The first graders held signs over their heads and chanted out loud to a cheering crowd of parents, teachers, and school board members, "We read 4,458 books!" The crowd went wild, applauding and cheering. The kids beamed. Their teacher closed with, "And remember kids, never stop reading !" The crowd cheered some more. Like Hamlet at his mother's wedding, I sat in the corner, a melancholy English teacher and couldn't stop myself from thinking, "But they will stop." According to a 2014 Common Sense Media report , 64% of seventeen-year-olds in 1984 said they read a book (for pleasure) at least once per week. In 2012 that number dropped to 40%--a 24% decrease. That means that in 2012, almost two-thirds of high school juniors or seniors did not pick up a book (eBook or print) even once a week. Plus, that's the first year that SnapChat came out and before it was big. Does anyone think that number has gone u...