Reading For Pleasure Is In Painful Decline Analysis

If you had the choice between your phone and a book,you would probably without thinking grab your phone. But what if you knew that reading is crucial to a future. In “Reading for pleasure Is in Painful Decline” by Stephen L. Carter and “Twilight of the books” by Caleb Crain, both authors argue about the state of reading in The United States. Within both passages they give valid points as to why and how the state of reading are negatively affecting the country. Stephen L. Carter represents how the decline in reading for fun is the main concern, while on the other hand, Caleb Crain shows it’s technology and social media that actually are the main contributors.
Throughout “Reading for Pleasure Is in Painful Decline” by Stephen L. Carter, Carter

An example of this is,”The question was even looser in 1998 and 2002, when the General Social Survey found that roughly seventy percent of americans had read a novel,a short story ,a poem, or a play in the preceding twelve months. And, this August, seventy-three percent of respondents to another poll said they had read a book of some kind, not excluding those read for work or school, in the past year. If you didn’t read the fine print, you might think that reading was on the rise.”(Crain 7) This explains why Crain might have chosen to use statistics as a reference. Many times statistics help to explain reasoning for something that commentary cannot. An example of how Crain thinks that technology is the main reason for the decrease would be,”Children may be browbeaten, but adults resist interference with their pleasures. It may simply be the case that many Americans prefer to learn about the world and to entertain themselves with television and other streaming media, rather than with the printed word…”(Crain 8) This quote represents the problem as to why we turn to technology. It also gives the reader an example of why the reading decrease might be occurring. Technology could also be the root of many other problems in

Within Carter’s claim he states that the decrease is because of the lack of reading for fun. While on the other hand Crain states it is because of technology. Some might say that Carter’s view point is less boring and more interesting to the reader because of his use of figurative language; however, his article is more opinionated and can not be entirely true. On the other hand in Crain’s article, he presents the reader with factual information that can be backed up. This provides the reader with more of an idea of the problem then opinions do. Overall, Crain’s viewpoint of the state of reading in the US is backed up better with the facts presented. So would you put the pick the phone or the book