Are Youngsters Reading Science Fiction?

This is from my old website, written on

May 21, 2007

Why aren't young people reading SF -- or have they ever?
How about a few small facts here to start things off?
Fact: in 2005, there were 30,000,000 American people between the ages of 13 and 19. Thirty million teenagers. Cool.
Fact: in 2005, the American Library Association through its Young Adult Library Services Association, invited teens to vote for their favorite book of those published between January 2005 and April 2006. There were "Over 5000 online ballots" cast. Well...that seems nice.
Fact: Simple division says: 5500 (I'm giving that as the "over 5000 number) / 30,000,000 x 100 = .018%. That's 2 HUNDREDTHS of a percent of all American teens voted in this effort to engage young adults in reading.
Conclusion: Not only do teenagers not read Science Fiction, they don't read anything else, either.
All right, let's try and look at the bright side of things...
"At least kids are reading!" Some of them anyway...
So, of the books they picked in 2005 and part of 2006, the breakdown is as follows:
Fantasy: 7
Realistic: 1
Science Fiction: 1
Fairy Tale Retelling: 1
(If you want to know the books, go to the ALA's Teen Reading site)
The results for 2006-2007 haven't been tabulated yet, but the current most popular breakdown is:
Fantasy: 5
Realistic: 8
Science Fiction: 1
Mystery: 5
Historical: 3
Adventure: 1
Short Story: 1
There's no data in how many young adults nominated the books.
So: my explanation? Couple of things, actually. First reason is illustrated by my daughter who is sitting in front of me -- doing homework. She's also discovering classics as well. She just finished and loved THE GREAT GATSBY. Also this past year, she read THE BELL JAR, INVISIBLE MAN, and HAROUN AND THE SEA OF STORIES. Young adults are busy doing homework and studying and spending time with friends.
Second reason is illustrated by my son -- he's at work right now. YA's are WORKING for the first time and get involved in their jobs. At least their jobs take up a new amount of time and they can't quite figure out how to balance work and leisure. Books take a WAYYYYYY back seat to phone talking, texting, IMing, watching DVDs, playing video games and catching up on their favorite subject in magazines.
Third reason is the one likely to irritate you: science fiction writers today aren't writing anything young adults want to read. They write what old white men want to read. People like me. And most SF writers. Who's the YOUNGEST SF writer you can name? Shane Tourtellotte's name springs to mind. How about the youngest FEMALE SF writer? Any names leap to mind? Julie Czerneda? Sarah Zettel (OOPS! She left SF for Fantasy...) Anyone else? None? Perhaps the young adults of today are being shut out by the OLD MEN (and I include myself with them) who do 85% of the writing of SF and nearly 90% of the judging and voting on SF awards...how many women go to the Hugos? I don't know, I've never had the joy of going. Anyone tell me? PLEASE tell me my numbers are wrong.
I think this is why YA's aren't READING SF. There's no one writing today who can speak to THEIR world. And those of us who grew up with Heinlein, Norton and the rest of the crew grew up in a VERY different world. I work with teens every day. I have for the past 26 years. Kids today ARE different than they were when "you" were a kid. They're even different than kids were TEN years ago. They live in a world that not only sells violence as a drug of choice, it's also a world that has removed ANY kind of societal morality in favor of "whatever" morality that they see fit to be moral with. This leaves kids wihout any kind of moral compass...and THOSE are the kids who wouldn't be caught dead reading ROCKETSHIP GALILEO or BOUNCING TO THE MOON or any of the other disconnected SF that is periodically floated in their direction in the hopes that they'll read it and become voracious SF adult readers.
The upshot of this is that unless someone out there can connect with today's young adults, SF will disappear as first its practitioners die off and finally its fan base dies off.

Is there anyone out there who'd like to knock me on my butt and prove me wrong? (Please...)