this post was submitted on 22 Aug 2023
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Has anyone else noticed a sudden lack of reading comprehension skills? (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 1 year ago by ThatWeirdGuy1001@sh.itjust.works to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml
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Just as the title asks I've noticed a very sharp increase in people just straight up not comprehending what they're reading.

They'll read it and despite all the information being there, if it's even slightly out of line from the most straightforward sentence structure, they act like it's complete gibberish or indecipherable.

Has anyone else noticed this? Because honestly it's making me lose my fucking mind.

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[โ€“] CeruleanRuin@lemmings.world 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (4 children)

I am honestly starting to wonder if there's some as-yet-unidentified environmental factor at play like how leaded gasoline caused so many problems in the latter half of the 20th Century.

But with regard to your specific gripe, pedantry is a hobby for some people.

[โ€“] blivet@artemis.camp 10 points 1 year ago

I've noticed it in myself lately. I'll compose a reply to an email and halfway through realize that the information I'm asking for is right there in the original email, or I'll start writing a reply to an online comment and realize that I have gotten the writer's point completely backwards. At least I catch myself, but it's really weird.

I think part of it is that I've come to the conclusion that most people are so stupid and lazy that my default is to assume that they don't know what they're talking about, or won't give me the information I need without special prompting on my part.

[โ€“] ThatWeirdGuy1001@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Microplastics?

Forever chemicals?

Covid?

At this rate there's a lot of contenders.

Sad.

[โ€“] Albbi@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Well the atmospheric CO2 levels are rising, and higher CO2 leads to reduced cognitive ability. So I believe all the pollution we're spewing into the air is reducing overall human intelligence.

[โ€“] planish@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah but indoor CO2 levels have been above outdoor CO2 levels by way more than outdoor CO2 levels have risen. So unless it's some kind of weird thing where you have to hit a particular low level regularly to avoid the effect, it is hard to see the mechanism here.

[โ€“] Albbi@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 year ago

I see it as having the baseline levels increase. You never really get that fresh air anymore.

[โ€“] dreadgoat@kbin.social 3 points 1 year ago

Disclaimer that I am completely talking out of my ass and speculating, but I have a personal theory.

COVID has been around long enough to have two interesting effects.

  1. Almost everyone has gotten it by now. Some of us got it really bad, and/or acquired long-term secondary conditions. Some of this likely caused impaired cognitive function.
  2. Kids had their school schedules totally fucked up for years, and those kids are now the young teens on the internet. Young teens on the internet are already by default a disruptive demographic, but now add the effect of years of desocialization and missed education.