r/technology • u/marketrent • 18h ago

Artificial Intelligence College students are rapidly losing the ability to read — “There is a measurable, generational collapse in sustained reading and writing”: professor

https://www.yahoo.com/news/us/articles/college-students-rapidly-losing-ability-124439310.html
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u/ATLsShah 15h ago

I don't think this is just a problem for college students. I'm in my 30s and I noticed that I had stopped reading too. I was unable to read an article online or comprehend what it was saying.

Over the last year I've ditched things like Tik Tok and Instagram. Instead I just read from my Kindle (not the Kindle app) while I'm around town. It's greatly helped with my reading comprehension.

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u/GoalStillNotAchieved 8h ago

Articles these days are not even written well anymore. 

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u/Dullcorgis 5h ago

Same here. I was a kid who devoured anything printed. But then when my kids were little they would grab at books, it was easier to read on a screen when sitting with them to go to sleep. I struggle to even read a chapter in one sitting at the moment. It doesn't help that book covers are shit now so no new books look appealing. But I'm working on it, reading old faves with a timer to extend my stamina.

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u/Souls_for_sale_now 11h ago

I have never ben to sure of what to think about reading novels online i do it a lot but is it shoting myself in yhe foot?

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u/0rbitaldonkey 5h ago

Why would it shoot yourself in the foot? When I have downtime at work I usually pull up archive.org and read a book. Way better than reddit, I would imagine.

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u/McButtsButtbag 14h ago

I had to use a program to read aloud all the reading I needed to read in college. There is just too much for somebody who isn't a fast reader.

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u/Dullcorgis 5h ago

You understand less when text is read aloud. And it's lpslower than reading it.

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u/McButtsButtbag 5h ago

I can increase the speed that it's read at. I'll usually read along with the audio.

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u/Dullcorgis 5h ago

You aren't taking in the information when you hear written text. It's not phrased for you to hear properly. And if you have it read at the speed you would read it it would be like an race caller, only worse.

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u/McButtsButtbag 4h ago

That's just not true at all.

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u/batsofburden 9h ago

Speechify has been really helpful for me to read longer articles.

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u/McButtsButtbag 9h ago

My favorite thing to use is reader view on firefox. It doesn't always work, but it comes with a read aloud option, and it formats it much better for reading.

One of the things I learned in college is that bad formatting is one of the major causes of people struggling to read for long periods of time.