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Has anyone else noticed a sudden lack of reading comprehension skills? (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 1 year ago by ThatWeirdGuy1001@sh.itjust.works to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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Just as the title asks I've noticed a very sharp increase in people just straight up not comprehending what they're reading.

They'll read it and despite all the information being there, if it's even slightly out of line from the most straightforward sentence structure, they act like it's complete gibberish or indecipherable.

Has anyone else noticed this? Because honestly it's making me lose my fucking mind.

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[–] tchotchony@mander.xyz 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

That is quite insane. You got sources?

[–] chakan2@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

Top hit on google: https://www.crossrivertherapy.com/research/literacy-statistics#:~:text=Top%2010%20U.S.%20Literacy%20Rate,literacy%20below%20sixth%2Dgrade%20level.

Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaeltnietzel/2020/09/09/low-literacy-levels-among-us-adults-could-be-costing-the-economy-22-trillion-a-year/?sh=223357864c90

Snopes: https://www.snopes.com/news/2022/08/02/us-literacy-rate/

There's a bunch of other studies out there that back that number...It's always generally 20% can't read at all...50% can't do critical analysis of text.

It's really ugly...Those people all vote, and I think it helps explain how the most vile ridiculous demons the R's put out there get 30%+ of the vote. It's extremely hard to refute lies when the person consuming and believing the lie can't read.

[–] SuperSleuth@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Read more about it here. A reminder, if you can't find the sample size then disregard the source.

[–] usrtrv@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 year ago

That site is showing literacy improvement for 4th graders since 2003. It also says "21% of Americans 18 and older are illiterate in 2022." but then another graph showing "United States 86.0 %" in global ranking of literacy. It's just a hodgepodge of stats being semi-sourced with little to no conext, it even includes Wikipedia as a source.

I'm not saying there's no literacy problems in the US, I just don't know what to make of that site specifically.