There is plenty of evidence that literacy skills continue to decline. U.S. government data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress shows that after years of educational reforms, high school seniors scored worse on a national reading test than they had back in 1992. Less than three-quarters of U.S. 12th graders scored at at least the “basic” level, down from 80% in the early 1990s. 

Employers view reading and writing as critical basic skills, yet they are often at a loss about how to improve those skills among their workforce without incurring huge costs and loss of on-the-job time. Training programs abound to train managers and staff about project and budget control and various technical disciplines, but few programs exist to teach basic skills and employers find it difficult to justify such expenditures. 

Learners have changed as a result of their exposure to technology, says Greenfield, who analyzed more than 50 studies on learning and technology, including research on multi-tasking and the use of computers, the Internet and video games. Her research was published this month in the journal Science.

Girls outpace boys, averaging more than 4,000 texts per month. That’s more than 130 of them a day, every day, or a text every 10 minutes, almost around the clock.