There is a new buzzword reemerging in reading circles—“aliteracy,” which means being able to read but rarely choosing to read.

The backstory on aliteracy is the rise of the screen age. We’ve all read about the trends: Kids are spending too much time sort of reading (but not anything remotely profound), kind of writing (but not anything resembling a sentence with proper grammar), kind of focusing (until they hop to the next screen). All of this adds up to children who can read but don’t have the ability to comprehend a real story or grasp a complex idea, and no capacity to move from the written word to meaningful knowledge.

The use of the term aliteracy has ticked up recently, though the term and its definition can be found as early as 1966, with more widespread use beginning in the 1990s. Like the familiar “reluctant readers” diagnosis often given to children today, aliteracy is really just a form of self-determined illiteracy, aided and abetted by the time-suck of iPads, Androids, and all their techno-offspring. Many people doubt the claims of screen-time addiction, saying there is limited scientific support backing up the long-term effects of interacting with a screen. They read newspaper articles about the damaging effects of the video game culture—especially violent video games—and assume it is just one more thing to make parents nervous and anxious. Most of these kids will likely have normal lives and hold down jobs. They will grow up and get serious. Maybe so. But what about their imaginations and their passions?

Read the article “The Rise of Aliteracy” on acculturated.com.