Reading Is Dead

About half of the Millennial Generation (teens and early-twenties) never read for pleasure. In fact, this age group spends seven minutes a day reading while spending over two hours a day watching television. What else are they doing? Just what you would think: surfing the internet, listening to their iPods, talking and texting on their mobile phones, and instant-messaging their friends. (Notice also that they are not spending much time on email either!)

These statistics come from a report by The National Endowment for the Arts issued in… 2007! The report was a compendium of over 40 studies by universities, foundations, business groups, and government agencies. The situation has only worsened over the past four years. Given this information, it shouldn’t be surprising that newspapers across the country are struggling.

This all came to light for me during a recent conversation with my Millennial Generation son. Read (!) about it in my latest Toward Humanity blog post, “Reading Is Dead” (or download the PDF).

Communication is changing and thus, we must adapt.

What Keeps You Up at Night?

Consider this passage from The Social Animal, by David Brooks. When one of the book’s protagonists is pitching a CEO, the CEO interrupts her. “You are boring me.” he states. “I just don’t relate to what you are offering.”

“Instead of telling me what you are offering, why don’t you ask me what I want?” He continues. “Ask me what makes me unhappy. Ask me what keeps me up at night. Ask me what part of my job I wish somebody would take care of for me.”

So I‘m asking: What do you want? What makes you unhappy? What keeps you up? What do you want taken care of? What can I do for you to solve your problems? Email me and ask.