For my project this semester I wanted to research a topic I’ve been hearing a lot about in the past few years: the decline of literary in younger generations. I’ve heard this topic be mentioned when relating to the use of AI, of social media, the decline in quality of books and films and much more. Usually articles says something along the lines of : Media Literacy Rates have dropped with 57% percent in adolescences since the year 1994!!! Kids cant read any more, all they do is doom-scroll!! But is this actually true and if it is what does it actually mean for my generation as well as the generations of the future?
“Why are literacy rates dropping and what does this mean for us?”
I think this question encompass most of the topics I want to look into, I will break it into smaller questions like: is AI contributing to the dropping rates?social media? Is the quality of media also in decline? How do Media literacy rates affect the media we produce? Is this a global phenomenon? How do the rates of adolescences in Canada compare other places in the world? etc.
This question is important to me as I am apart of the demographic I will be studying. Researching this topic will make me more aware of the media I consume and more importantly how I process it and what I do with the information I retain. I know I have felt the affect of this decline, but I could not explain it to you if I wanted to, for now. This project will give me the words and facts to back up this intuition.