My pet-peeve of today's kids

[Myoldtoys]

Some of my daughters friends do and others don't read much. We started taking her to the library when she was a toddler. She's almost 10 and is a voracious reader. She reads 2 to 3 books at a time which I can't do. I would get lost and mixed up with the stories. She also reads in the car anytime we go anywhere. Even a 10 minute trip. With Harry Potter, we didn't let her watch the movies before reading the books. She loves to point out the differences between the book and movie. I think you have to start young and it can be an effort. Throwing an iPad or video game in front of them is much easier.

[EMCE Hammer]

All three of my sons have a bookshelf in their room that is overfilled with books that they've read. Their school system still has book fairs, and they still look forward to them. My only regret is that they've never really gotten into the stuff I've slid in over the years from my own childhood - Asimov, Anthony, Cooper, McCaffrey, Tolkien etc. It's all Wimpy Kid and Rick Riordan type stuff, which is fine. We do all like the same comics more or less, and the same genres in general.

That being said, my neighborhood is full of kids. As they've aged, there are a few that I don't see anymore for months at a time. They're inside on their devices playing video games, which does make me sad. My generation spent a lot of time on the Atari, but relative to what kids are doing these days it was just a split second. The dumbest argument I hear in favor of video games is how playing helps improve hand/eye coordination. What advantage does anyone gain at the truly useful activities in life with hand/eye coordination honed by countless hours of video game time? It's one of the dumbest things I've ever heard from otherwise intelligent people.

[cjefferys]

I personally haven't noticed a huge difference in the percent of kids (hell, people in general) who read for pleasure. It's always been a minority of the population in my opinion. I was a voracious reader when I was a kid (still am) but my sister and a lot of my friends were not. My kids read a fair amount, but I'm always trying to encourage them to read more. I think people either enjoy reading for fun, or they don't, technology hasn't seemed to change that much as far as I can notice.

[Megotastrophe]

The eye hand coordination is actually not so true. The touch screen use actually tends to reduce fine motor skills to the point that one medical school was including special hand exercises for surgical students.

[B-Lister]

Some kids are voracious readers, others not so much.

Even geekiness is no indication of it. I've met plenty of geeks who hate reading.