Petersen 1

5th hour

2-24-22

Mr. Droski

Kathleen Petersen

Gioia’s Argument

Gioia argues that the decline in reading will have negative effects on society in many

ways. They argue that people are less interested in the arts, less social, and less qualified for jobs.

These people claim that they were not given enough education on how to read in school. Instead

of blaming themselves for not reading books, they blamed the schools they attended for not

making them read. They also did not read as many books that were good literary texts. As a

result, they were not as civically engaged.

Gioia argues that people are less interested in the arts. One of the topics related to the arts

is reading which is something that young people are growing less and less interested in pursuing.

“They are not reading histories, biographies, or political works,” (Gioia). These people are also

not interested in “reading any type of literature,” (Gioia). Reading as a result “is not a timeless,

universal capability,” (Gioia). Another result is that “our nation becomes less informed,” (Gioia).

People become less “independent-minded,” (Gioia), as they become less engaged in the arts.

The author claims that people are less social. They are “less likely to go to sporting

events,” (Gioia). These young people are also less likely to “perform charity work,” (Gioia) in

their community. They are also not as interested in “going to a museum,” (Gioia) in their spare

time. These people do not go out to do things as much as if they were readers. Reading increases
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a person’s probability of “performing charity work by four times,” (Gioia). These are the ways

that people are less social.

People are less qualified for jobs. “Poor reading skills ranked second,” (Gioia) for the

thing that people were the worst at. “The ability to create artistic and emotional beauty,” (Daniel

Pink) ties into the ability to read, which people were lacking in. People are nowadays unable to

“craft a satisfying narrative,” (Daniel Pink). “Imagination, creativity, and high order thinking,”

(Gioia), are related to reading and people lack these skills. As a result, people are not as qualified

for jobs.

People are not as excited about the arts, socializing, or having the qualifications for jobs.

If people do not put in the effort to read then they are not as interested in literary arts. If people

are less social, then that is the result of not reading books. If employers find people to be less

qualified for jobs it is because those people did not develop the mandatory skills for their job

because of their lack of reading. In conclusion, people are not as interested in these things

because they do not read.