WATCH WHAT YOU READ

Azita Crerar
Sep 17, 2019
4 min read

Hey Kids,

Has anyone ever told you to be wary of what you read? I’m not talking about inappropriate websites, books, magazines, etc. with questionable content and images. I know you’re clever enough to steer clear of those. I’m talking more about the quality of what you read, and especially the style.

Have you ever heard of something called dumbing down? This refers to making content easier to grasp, and it’s been an ongoing trend across the book, movie, television industries, etc.

Watch a movie from 30 years ago, or even 20 years ago, and you’ll notice a difference between movies now and then. Watch a movie that was made 60 or 80 years ago, and the difference is even more marked. I’m not talking about the quality of the images, voices, or special effects. Every director worked with the most modern technology available, and this is true today too. It’s quite possible that 20 years down the road, people will be laughing at movies made in 2019-20, commenting on how low the quality was, pixels per frame, etc. Maybe they’ll even laugh at the fact that we still had TVs.

The biggest difference between movies made now and those in decades gone by is their pace. Stories were slower. Actors spoke for longer at a time. Now they might sound like speeches. They used bigger words. At the beginning of movies you would sometimes see one or more shots of written explanation, describing where and when the story took place, and any pertinent details the viewer needed to know. Now it seems viewers are less patient. Cut to the chase! Give me the story, give me the meat! They are less patient to figure out the plot. They don’t want big words. They want lots of action.

Do you agree? Write me in the comments at the end of this post and share your opinion on this.

What happened with movies has happened with books too. If you pick up a book from 50 or 100 years ago, you’ll notice similar things: slower pace, bigger words. Pick up a book from 200 years ago, and you might have a lot of trouble understanding it. Words come in and out of fashion, and so do writing styles.

Back to the idea of dumbing down. The trend in writing is, at least for kids, simple plots, simple words, lots of excitement and action, and a breakneck pace. Does that sound accurate?

I’ve got three kids, and I’ve noticed with dismay over the last 15 years how simple the vocabulary was, even in books for older kids. That’s why I insist on using big words in my speaking and in my writing.

Let’s try an experiment: Pick up a book right now. Maybe something in your room or on a bookshelf in your house. A book that you know and that you’re familiar with. A book that you like and have read recently. Something published in the last 10 years. Open it at random and skim a page. How many words are unfamiliar to you? How many would you have trouble explaining?

Write me in the comments with your answer.

I’m willing to bet, 10 to 1, that there were not that many words you didn’t know. Maybe 2 or 3. Maybe 0. If it’s 10 or 20, I’ll be pleasantly surprised.

So here’s the thing. You should be reading something that will teach you new words. You should have several new words in the space of reading for 5-10 minutes. Otherwise, the book is too easy for you. Even as an adult, I’m still learning new words. I love coming across words that look interesting. Last week I learnt the word “dvandva”. I immediately liked the look of it, and the fact that my tongue tripped over it. I wanted to know what this word meant. I looked it up, sort of got it, but wanted to see more examples of it in English. If you’re curious, go look it up. I bet your teachers at school haven’t heard of this word either!

So one thing is vocabulary in books, and the other is style. Did you know that when you write something, whether at home or at school, you tend to copy the style of the last book you read? So if you’re always reading “dumbed down” books, your writing style will reflect that.

For that reason I encourage you to read books written at different time periods. You might not like them, find them slow or strange or boring even, but you’ll learn something. You’ll learn new words (definitely!), new writing styles, new (or old, but new to you) plot twists, etc.

I promise your writing will be BETTER for this, not worse.

So read a book that was written in the:

1990s

1980s

1970s

1960s

1950s

1940s

Work your way down into the 1800s if you’re able to.