Many of today’s issues and dilemmas would be well on their way to being solved, or already solved, if young people had been taught to enjoy both reading and critical thinking. Since the age of the internet and cellphones began, people, especially children and young adults, have been experiencing shorter attention spans.
With these shorter attention spans comes less willingness to read things that take more time and effort to understand, which is exactly where the problem starts.
Losing the ability to focus on long and complex writing diminishes critical thinking ability. This loss renders us incapable of analyzing problems and solutions for issues on large and small scales.
This can often lead us to add gas to the fire when dealing with problems. People who have lost the ability, or never had the ability, to think critically will frequently make situations worse. This happens because being focused on trying to solve a problem quickly does not mean solving it correctly.
In large part, this stems directly from shorter attention spans. So, what is the solution then? Parents need to teach their children to enjoy reading longer pieces and thinking critically.
In today’s world of three-minute reads, children are not learning how to focus on longer, more difficult writing. Parents need to be making an effort to teach their children how to do this.
You may be thinking, “How does enjoying reading teach my child to think critically?” Well, when one reads a book, almost subconsciously, they make connections between their own life and the characters in said book. They also may experience an internal conflict because something brought up in that book disagrees with what society or their parents have taught them. Once those parallels or conflicts are made, one is forced, whether consciously or subconsciously, to think about those situations and how they could be solved or how they compare.
So, when a child enjoys reading they will inevitably seek out more books, papers and articles to read, and every time they read something, they will think about problems, comparisons and their own opinions. Those thoughts are exactly where critical thinking is developed.
With children who enjoy and know how to analyze the world around them, important issues would be solved in a quicker, and effectively. Reading and critical thinking could be the end of “throwing gas” on societal problems and the beginning of solving them and improving everyone’s lives as a whole.
Anna Millar is a freshman studying journalism at Ohio University. Please note that the views and opinions of the columnists do not reflect those of The Post. What are your thoughts? Tweet her @AnnaMillar16.
