It would be an irony if, despite the best efforts of teachers everywhere to turn kids into lifelong readers, it turned out to be the 24/7 news cycle that many observers believe is accomplishing what generations of educators have not: universal literacy.
According to psychologists and experts in organizational behaviour, that is exactly what is likely to happen if we are all to retain our sanity.
Carolyn Gregoire, senior health and science writer at the Huffington Post, writes that: “The world isn’t falling apart, but it can sure feel like it. The news can be violent, depressing and emotionally charged.”
Writing in the Washington Post, political scientist Shana Gadrian agrees, saying: “Terrorism is newsworthy because it is inherently dramatic and threatening; media competition means that journalists and editors have incentives to use emotionally powerful visuals and story lines to gain and maintain ever-shrinking news audiences.”
Deborah Searcy, a professor in organizational behaviour at Florida Atlantic University, suggests a better option than wallowing in the 24/7 ocean of TV information about environmental, humanitarian and political catastrophes is reading a print newspaper.
“You will [still] get the headlines, but on page two or seven,” she says, “but you will also find a positive story that will lower your stress levels.”
Even better for a reduction in your “headline stress disorder,” as psychologist Steven Stosny described the malady that bounces along in our consciousness in the wake of the daily news, is fiction.
Melanie Green, associate professor in the department of communication at University at Buffalo, in an interview with NBC News, made the point: “One of the benefits to reading fiction is simply that it provides enjoyment and pleasure. It can provide an escape from boredom or stress,” adding that “people who are absorbed in a story world aren’t ruminating on their own personal concerns.”
But more important than mere escapism, says Green, reading fiction has been shown to help us better understand and interact with other people, keep our brains sharp, expand our world views and grow as individuals. “Stories allow us to feel connected with others and part of something bigger than ourselves.”
Green’s research suggests that getting lost in a book, “transportation” as she calls it, enables us as readers “to enter the minds of these other people. And in doing that we understand other people better.”
Other researchers agree, citing studies that suggest that people who reported reading the most fiction scored higher on both empathy and social-ability tests.
Observably, as children are read to and subsequently begin to read independently, their general vocabulary takes a sudden leap forward in step with their ability to express themselves with greater clarity, to the chagrin of some parents.
Neuroscience research shows reading is good for a range of other cognitive skills, as well, by stimulating the neural networks in the brain that relate to social cognition and conceptual processing of abstract content.
Social cognition, in everyday terms, is about reading and responding to social situations appropriately. It is about empathy, but also focuses on how people, children especially, process, store and apply information to a new situation or to new content.
Even for older folks, the habit of reading, especially fiction, might have measurable benefits in terms of longer-term health.
“Reading, by engaging the brain, may keep the brain active enough to prevent the kind of cognitive decline associated with earlier mortality,” explains Avni Bavishi, an MD candidate at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University.
A 2013 study found that people who reported reading and doing other similarly cognitively stimulating activities throughout their lives had less cognitive decline compared with people who didn’t read as a habit.
But back to that 24/7 news cycle of disasters, catastrophes, disillusionment and out-of-control politics: “Being tuned in to the 24-hour news cycle may fuel a lot of negative feelings like anxiety, sadness and hopelessness,” says behavioural psychologist and therapist Jana Scriviani, “Subjecting ourselves to an endless barrage of tragedies and trauma can foster a real sense of being out of control.”
But there is a better and more stable platform for our sanity, a better way to travel through and learn about the best of the world around us, writes Anna Quindlen, Newsweek columnist and bestselling author of Rise and Shine and A Short Guide to a Happy Life.
“Books are the plane, and the train, and the road. They are the destination, and the journey. They are home.”
Geoff Johnson is a former superintendent of schools.
