The French TV weekly Télérama said, under the title “Read? You’ve Got to Be Kidding!”: “Here is what [youths surveyed] had to say about reading. They were very frank. They read very little, if at all, for the simple reason that they find it boring.” The article drew the dismal conclusion: “Hardly one in three can truly be termed a reader.”

In the Télérama survey mentioned earlier, 21 percent of those interviewed explained their boredom with reading by saying: “I prefer watching television.” With what effect? The report of the National Institute of Mental Health (United States) says: “The evidence now supports the opinion that heavy television viewing tends to displace time required to practice reading, writing, and other school-learning skills. . . . Television on the whole also seems to interfere with educational aspirations.”