The Decline of Literacy

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An decline has occurred in the amount of time young people spend reading. The loss of interest in teenagers for reading has resulted from the invention of the moving picture. No longer do teenagers open their imaginations to create a vision of stories portrayed in books. The visions have already been provided for them in the forms of movies, video games, and television.

A common pastime for teenagers is movie watching. Every weekend, and occasionally week nights, one can find hundreds of young people at movie theaters. Great stories that were once only obtainable through reading have been made into movies, attracting millions of young people to watch. I recently went to see the movie remake of Stephen King's book The Green Mile. I had beforehand read the book. To me, the movie did not accurately portray King's book. Most of the young people I asked to compare the movie and the book told me they had never even heard of the book version of The Green Mile. I found the fact that movies have replaced the thrill of reading for teenagers very discouraging.

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