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Reading comprehension has gone down the tubes. I dunno if it's from people watching too many TikToks and their attention span can't handle reading more than one sentence anymore, or what, but I have definitely noticed a change in people's ability to read and understand the content of what they just read.
Where I work, my old boss never wrote anything down, did not like to communicate via email, and insisted on phone calls/verbal meetings instead. When they announced they were taking a new job, we begged them to create an SOP of all the things they did with detailed instructions because NONE of it had ever been written down. We were told no, they couldn't do that. No explanation other than "I can't." And I'm convinced that they simply couldn't read, or could BARELY read.
So I created the SOP instead, detailed as hell, everything in one place. Sections, subsections, hyperlinks, it's all there. 2 new employees come into the office, I'm supposed to train them. I do, and I show them the SOP, tell them "everything you need to know is in this SOP", so that AFTER I train them, they can reference it.
They never reference it, ever. They ask me how to do the things they've forgotten instead. I just point them to the correct section in the SOP and tell them to read it. BUT THEY DON'T READ. It's insane! How do they get by in life in general!?
You're right. The illiteracy is everywhere. It's a very troubling sign.
I wonder, were there any other points in history, post-literacy, where a significant amount of people went to school yet still lacked literacy skills? If it has happened, would it even be recorded? Or is this aspect of modern society truly novel?
It'd be nice to know how such a situation would've been rectified in the past, but I get the feeling the solution would be the same thing I've been calling for since my own childhood - a comprehensive public educational system with a focus on critical thinking.
It would be interesting to see if it's ever happened in the past, for sure. I too assumed it was due to poor education, but the three people I mentioned (my old boss and the 2 new coworkers) all came from different areas of the U.S. and are each in different generations (1 Boomer, 1 Gen X, 1 Millennial), so they all have very different backgrounds/education experiences, yet they ALL struggle to read anything longer than a single sentence. It's infuriating. I try to be patient, because hey, we all have our thing we suck at, but it's honestly a little scary that they and so many other are out there not following directions simply because they can't read them.
Literacy rates in USA are pretty awful and getting worse. And probably happening in other countries as well.
It's especially bad when you work in an experienced field where a primary job function is reading comprehension (software engineering). And you have folks who are supposed to be software engineers who can't seem to read or understand documentation. Never mind being able to productively engage in the various forms of debate that come along with any engineering practice.