[jdiff]

I'm a high school teacher. Not for long, but for a few years now.

Never have I ever seen a student reading on their phone. I'm not saying it doesn't happen, but it must be a vanishingly small fraction that I have not yet encountered. When my students are on their phones, it's games, or it's (primarily video-based) social media. A smaller but notable fraction is background media consumption, either music or movies.

That's not to say I don't have kids who read, though they're much rarer than the music listeners, just that the readers seem to prefer physical books.

So at least in my experience, I wouldn't expect that metric to be vulnerable to this particular flavor of distortion.

[docfort]

Thanks for the reality check. I was worried about how I could be conflating my own personal view as a parent with the popular narrative of "kids these days and their Instagram/TikTok." Probably says a lot more about me, but I vastly prefer the reading experience of a thick book on a phone than as a physical copy. And I have since I was a teenager (and it was just PDAs and clever TI-89 hackery).

[philwelch]

Most people don’t have the patience and attention span to read thick books in the first place. That’s something that you have to develop with practice, and kids who have access to TikTok aren’t going to get that practice.

[Ekaros]

I used to read on PDA and then later on Nokia Internet Tablet. But never in school even if I had one where. At those times it was just games(Bejewelled, Space Trader, DopeWars) or graphic calculator software.

[JumpCrisscross]

> games(Bejewelled, Space Trader, DopeWars) or graphic calculator software

Snake!

[Der_Einzige]

I know I’m an autist and Wikipedia addictions are not the norm, but how can people not enjoy reading?

I got in trouble all the time in school for reading (real books) during class time when the teacher was lecturing about things I already knew. Do kids like this not exist anymore? I thought autism rates were going up!

Seriously, no one reads? I thought kids were getting all political and woke, presumably from reading progressive things? I guess it’s all TikTok mind control?

I categorically oppose phone bans on the grounds that it harms the “brilliant lazy”, and that these forces are exactly the kind you want to cultivate. (insert the famous bill gates and 4 types of German officers quote about this here) - but if this class of people has evaporated from the school systems than who am I even defending?

[jdiff]

I do have readers, they're just not as common as the types. And like you they prefer physical books.

[hooverd]

I read a lot on my phone as a student.