Reading at Risk: A Response

The NEA’s recent “Reading at Risk” report, which concludes that there has been a 10% national decline in what it calls literary reading since 1982, with the drop-off even more precipitous among younger age groups, is surely of concern to anyone who cares about the future of literature and a literate populace. While the report suggests there are potentially a variety of factors responsible for this decline, it especially notes that we live in an era of pervasive electronic media.

We at the Electronic Literature Organization (ELO) share the NEA’s concerns, but we see the screen as well as the page as a natural venue for literature and imaginative writing. —Matt Kirschenbaum —Reading at Risk: A Response (MGK)

I added the hyperlinks for your convenience.

Those of us who love e-text can get carried away by our own hype, but reading and writing online is a subset of literacy, not its antithesis (as the NEA document seems to suggest).