Study in my country: boys+games=zero will to read books

[Sorafrosty]

Now, the results for the PISA tests have been published (that is the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment: http://www.pisa.oecd.org/pages/0,2987,en_32252351_32235731_1_1_1_1_1,00.html ), and my country (Norway) ranked as number 12. After the release of the results, a study was conducted, and it seems that the experts say that there is a big difference in the will to read and appreciation of literary works between boys and girls, and thus they recommend giving boys books for Christmas, and not games, as they feel this is what is keeping boys from reading, and so their reading skills are low.

*considers* I feel that people are a bit quick on the trigger to blame games for this, as always. Wouldn't it be better to embrace and appreciate the masses amount of text that every person who plays games have to read to progress in the story? Also, what do you think about this? Is it the same in your country?

 

[Baralak]

Well, I'm American, but I enjoy reading. I'm currently reading "The Phoenix Unchained" by Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory. Granted, I don't read often for the heck of it, but I do read before work and during breaks.

Great book, btw. I'm hoping I get part 2 for X-mas.

I love fantasy novels. Take me into different worlds and love them, all the while giving me ideas for D&D, helping my role-playing, and just telling a good story.

 

[the_pleasure_is_mine]

Well this sounds completely ridiculous.. I have one of the highest gamerscores on my friends list but still read 6+ books a month.

The problem I see is how expensive books are relative to their popularity...

I love books, but I'm reluctant to spend £12 on one, when something brilliant like Mogworld was released for £5.

 

[Thaius]

Kids often don't like reading. It requires a lot more work as an art form. This is regardless of games.

What is happening is that children are getting their narrative stimulation from movies and video games instead. And that's fine. Though it would be great if more kids read, the point is that stories are important to culture, and they have to experience narrative. That happens in good film, good television, and good games. Though kids should learn to appreciate literature, it is hardly a bad thing that they are also appreciating film and interactive narrative.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

*considers* I feel that people are a bit quick on the trigger to blame games for this, as always. Wouldn't it be better to embrace and appreciate the masses amount of text that every person who plays games have to read to progress in the story? Also, what do you think about this? Is it the same in your country?

What about all of the people who mash X or A in an attempt to skip those parts?

Anyway, I am an American and, even though I play games a bit more than the average human, I also read...I would think a little more than the average American 20-something. I need to find some figures to back me up other than the feeling that other people my age would rather be drinking and having sex than reading Hitchhiker's Guide.

 

[Sebenko]

Fuck that, I know I'm in the wrong country (but some ill-informed fuck will spout it as evidence anyway), but I've read more books becuase of games. Prime examples are Roadside Picnic and Metro 2033.

They might not be classics, but classics have a habit of being over-rated dross.

 

[scnj]

Hmm. I think it has less to do with video games and more to do with other factors. For example:

1. More forms of entertainment. Sure, video games fall under this, but there are generally more movies and TV shows now, along with the internet.

2. Parents pushing their children to read less. When I was a child I was encouraged to read a lot by my parents, and I feel that all children should be taught and encouraged this way.

3. Literary 'classics' not being updated. Sure, things like Pride & Prejudice will always be classics, but I feel that schools should make more effort to fit modern books into the curriculums too. Much of Jane Austen's work doesn't really apply to society any more and, as a result, it's harder for people to engage with the story or characters.

 

[subject_87]

Hell, I play video games regularly, and I can make literary references that make classmates go, 'What are you talking about?'

 

[AnAngryMoose]

Hell, I play video games regularly, and I can make literary references that make classmates go, 'What are you talking about?'

Reminds me of one of my own friends. With me doing the "What are you talking about?"

I love video games and reading. Admittedly, I haven't had much time for reading these days due to exams and whatnot, so my only source of reading is Deadpool comics (that and the two trilogies I've read recently have somewhat 'nuked the fride'), but I've just started reading 'The Warring Seas' by A.V Sellwood.

 

[kannibus]

When they say literary appreciation are they talking about dreck such as Shakespeare or dreck such as Twilight? Because I have never known a study to take into account that most books are UTTER CRAP.

Hell for the longest time the greatest literary work that I read was Green Eggs and Ham, and this is from a guy whose bookcase took up a whole wall in his bedroom.

 

[AnAngryMoose]

Hmm. I think it has less to do with video games and more to do with other factors. For example:

1. More forms of entertainment. Sure, video games fall under this, but there are generally more movies and TV shows now, along with the internet.

2. Parents pushing their children to read less. When I was a child I was encouraged to read a lot by my parents, and I feel that all children should be taught and encouraged this way.

3. Literary 'classics' not being updated. Sure, things like Pride & Prejudice will always be classics, but I feel that schools should make more effort to fit modern books into the curriculums too. Much of Jane Austen's work doesn't really apply to society any more and, as a result, it's harder for people to engage with the story or characters.

Quoted for truth. Particularly 2&3.

I was always encouraged to read too and was read to at a young age and then encouraged to read on my own. Personally, I think a mixture is good. Shakespeare should be here to stay. Period. But we need a mixture of books. Currently for an English class I'm studying Dancing at Lughnasa (An Irish play written by Brian Friel about a century or more ago), Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro (the book, not the film) and Billy Elliot (A 2006 British film). For another English class I'm studying Shakespeare's Hamlet and loving it.

 

[Sonicron]

Oh, balls. I'm constantly expanding my collection of novels and can be found with my nose in a book just about every day of the week. Playing video games is fun, but I couldn't possibly imagine it taking up more of my time than reading does.

 

[badgersprite]

Isn't this really just making assumptions about what causes what? I'm pretty sure most young boys aren't interested in reading books in their spare time. Most young boys also will have picked up a game at some point in their lives. I don't think it was gaming that made them disinterested in reading; if anything, it's that they'd just rather be out doing other stuff. When they do have free time, sure, they'll probably either spend it with TV or with a game before going to bed.

I"m a girl, so this study doesn't really apply to me.

 

[imnot]

I love reading I think they studied the wrong peopel.

 

[AnAngryMoose]

When they say literary appreciation are they talking about dreck such as Shakespeare or dreck such as Twilight? Because I have never known a study to take into account that most books are UTTER CRAP.

Hell for the longest time the greatest literary work that I read was Green Eggs and Ham, and this is from a guy whose bookcase took up a whole wall in his bedroom.

This reminds me of something my English teacher once told me when going off on a tangent about Baudelaire: "If something is really unpopular, then it's a great work of literature." Now, she really knows her stuff when it comes to English literature, and I can see where she was coming from considering a lot of poets and writers like Baudelaire were despised during their time but adored centuries later, but then it occured to me: Twilight.

If what she says is true, then Twilight is the Holy Grail of English literature.

 

[Kittenmauler]

I don't know about Norway but in America the reading lists for schools are mostly a bunch of girly crap, so it makes sense that boys aren't interested in reading.

 

[Varanfan9]

Heck I could prove these guys wrong right now. I played Call of Cthulu Darkest corners of the earth which got me to read some Cthulu books.

 

[Patrick Dare]

*considers* I feel that people are a bit quick on the trigger to blame games for this, as always. Wouldn't it be better to embrace and appreciate the masses amount of text that every person who plays games have to read to progress in the story? Also, what do you think about this? Is it the same in your country?

What about all of the people who mash X or A in an attempt to skip those parts?

Anyway, I am an American and, even though I play games a bit more than the average human, I also read...I would think a little more than the average American 20-something. I need to find some figures to back me up other than the feeling that other people my age would rather be drinking and having sex than reading Hitchhiker's Guide.

Why not do all those things? 20-something here, I love drinking but I also love reading and just finished the extended version of The Stand which is a looong book.