Why Literacy Is Important
Written by Trevin Morley
Literacy is one of, if not, the most important skills you can develop throughout your lifetime. Most people don’t realize all the ways they encounter literacy every day. Here are a few examples:
Driving: reading signs, following directions, taking driver’s tests.
Communication: texting, emailing, and in general, speaking with other people.
Food: reading food labels, reading a restaurant menu, reading recipes.
Health: medicine instructions, deciphering insurance forms.
Politics: staying informed on the news, voting.
Entertainment: books, movies and TV shows (scripts), podcasts, music (lyrics).
There are many other ways that literacy plays a role in our lives, but it doesn’t just help the individual, it is also beneficial to communities and even the economy. Literacy is incredibly important for job growth and success. In 2020, The Barbara Bush Foundation, along with Dr. Jonathan Rothwell from Gallup, did a study on the effects on the economy caused by adult illiteracy. Their findings were that those who are proficient in literacy have a better chance of earning a higher income. Specifically, “the average annual income of adults who read at the equivalent of a sixth-grade level is $63,000” and those “at the lowest levels of literacy…earn just $34,000 on average” (Barbara Bush Foundation). The study also found that if all adults read at a sixth-grade level and therefore earned an average of $63,000 annually, then the country would earn “an additional $2.2 trillion – or 10% of GDP – in annual income” (Barbara Bush Foundation). This reflects how important literacy is to a highly functioning society.
There is one aspect of literacy that I find to be incredibly overlooked: it’s ability to build empathy. In an interview with Fortune Magazine, author John Green speaks on this stating, “reading [is] the most significant character development tool for young people” because it “shrinks the empathy gap” (Mikhail). Reading opens up your world view to lives and perspectives outside of your own. This is more of a case for reading books than engaging in everyday literacy. However, even when you are studying politics or the news, as long as you are engaging critically, you are opening yourself up to new perspectives. John Green drives this point further by stating, “‘when I read Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield isn’t my friend or my spouse or my anything, [but] he is as close as I can come to being someone else’” (Mikhail). When reading, you are not only absorbing the perspective of the character but also the perspective of the author. So, using John Green’s example, when reading Catcher in the Rye, you are not only gaining the perspective of the main character, Holden Caulfield, but also the author, J.D. Salinger. This is because writing is an entirely personal action where you are displaying your thoughts on a page, perhaps even the ones that you won’t say aloud. The more we read, the more we engage with other people’s thoughts and beliefs. Thus, literacy is important because it helps us be better members of society.
Works Cited
Barbara Bush Foundation. “Via Forbes – New Study Finds the U.S. Could Be Losing $2.2 Trillion Annually due to Low Adult Literacy Rates.” Barbara Bush Foundation, 9 Sept. 2020, www.barbarabush.org/new-economic-study/.
Mikhail, Alexa. “Author John Green Has Advice for Gen Z to “Shrink the Empathy Gap.”” Fortune Well, Fortune, 31 May 2025, fortune.com/well/2025/05/31/john-green-gen-z-empathy/.