Question above is pretty blunt but was doing a study for a college course and came across that stat. How is that possible? My high school sucked but I was well equipped even with that sub standard level of education for college. Obviously income is a thing but to think 1 out of 5 American adults is categorized as illiterate is…astounding. Now poor media literacy I get, but not this. Edit: this was from a department of education report from 2022. Just incase people are curious where that comes from. It does also specify as literate in English so maybe not as grim as I thought.
Income disparity, communities where education isn’t supported, underfunded education, book burnings, tv/internet/gaming they’ve all had an impact. Add covid to the mix and burnt out parents and it’s all coming to a head
Hard to use the internet and game without being able to read. I’d say overall both of those would trend an average consumer’s reading ability past 6th grade level, but maybe I’m underestimating what qualifies as that level.
Tons of games with very little reading involved and people who do video content eg TikTok or YouTube rather than reading posts