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An Epidemic of Ignorance

Print media continues its long-term decline. In 1960, print delivered an estimated 26 percent of words transmitted. By 2008, that had declined to 9 percent. While TV absorbed 42 percent of the daily hours the average American spends receiving information, print media accounted for a meager 5 percent. Reading for fun is a disappearing practice among the young, and purchases of books went into a steep decline a decade ago. As Americans stop reading, ignorance of basic facts, especially scientific facts about such politically charged issues as climate change, has soared. Reading proficiency is also plummeting.17

It would be a profound irony if the new “information age” in fact coincides with the collapse of the public’s basic knowledge regarding key issues that we confront both as individuals and as citizens. It’s far too early to tell whether the Internet and other connected devices will end up leaving society dumber or better informed. Will video games and online streaming of entertainment end up crowding out more meaningful reading and gathering of information? These risks seem real, at least according to the flood of recent books such as The Dumbest Generation, Idiot America, The Age of American Unreason, and Just How Stupid Are We?

Recent polling data and academic studies do suggest that Americans lack basic shared factual knowledge. As one author recently put it, “The insulated mindset of individuals who know precious little history and civics and never read a book or visit a museum is fast becoming a common, shame-free condition.”18 If American high school test scores continue to rank poorly relative to other countries, so, too, will our economic prosperity, sense of economic security, and place in the world. Even more ominously, our capacity as citizens will collapse if we lack the shared knowledge to take on challenges such as balancing the federal budget and responding to human-induced climate change.

The Pew Research Center occasionally surveys the basic knowledge of the American public in its News IQ Quiz.19 At the end of 2010, only 15 percent could identify the prime minister of the United Kingdom and only 38 percent could choose the incoming U.S. House speaker from a list of four names. Slightly under half (46 percent) knew that the Republicans would control the lower house of Congress but not the Senate. And 39 percent correctly picked out defense as the largest budget item in a list that included Social Security, interest on the debt, and Medicare. None of these gaps in knowledge is a cardinal sin. As Pew put it, “the public knows basic facts about politics, economics, but struggles with specifics.” But when the country must grapple with complex choices about taxes, spending, military outlays, and the rest, the lack of basic knowledge becomes dangerous. A poorly informed public is much more easily swayed by propaganda and much less able to resist the dark maneuvers of the special-interest groups that pull the strings in Washington.

Reclaiming Our Mental Balance

In sum, America has become a media-saturated society, the first in history. Our days are filled with on-screen work; then we spend hours at home each day glued to TV sets, DVD players, video games, Internet chat rooms, and Facebook pages, with the flood of electronic media trumping every other activity and form of social interaction. We are a technology-rich, advertising-fed, knowledge-poor society. The media networks and social networking outlets are owned and operated by enormous business conglomerates that are ever more closely aligned with the political system. The economic self-interest of these corporate giants, and the owners behind them, ensures a relentless stream of corporate messages, personalized advertisements, and deliberate scientific misinformation on subjects such as climate change.

The logic of profit maximization, combined with unprecedented breakthroughs in information and communications technology, has led to an economy of distraction the likes