Cell phones Prove Surprising Boost To Literacy In Developing Countries

Sometimes tools have unexpected, and even unintended, new uses. From the first time someone used a rock for decoration up until the modern day when screwdrivers proved surprisingly adept as paint can openers. While some believed that mobile devices might well kill the printed word, reports from UNESCO are describing how mobile devices are proving to offer a boost to literacy rates, particularly in developing countries.

It's being called a “reading revolution”, and the UNESCO report in question took a look at the reading habits of around 5,000 different mobile device users, focusing in particular on seven countries, mainly in Africa: Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and Zimbabwe. Outside of Africa, meanwhile, the report also turned to India and Pakistan. In these countries, according to reports, the average child illiteracy rate is around 20 percent, while in adults it's around 34 percent.

That may sound distressing in its own right—especially so in light of the fact that the United States has a three percent adult illiteracy rate—but the introduction of mobile devices has been shown to have an impact on the overall levels of reading in the countries in question. Not only are more people reading in general, but more people are also reading to children, and most involved in the studies are eager to get more content.

One big source of extra content for the readers of developing nations comes from Worldreader, a nonprofit organization out of San Francisco that offers up not only a reader app but also e-books geared toward low-income countries. Most of the books in question are free, and the group also offers Kindles for use in classrooms. The Worldreader app thus far has about 6,000 titles to its credit, and boasts over 300,000 active users a month, allowing Worldreader to bring almost 1.7 million e-books just since its 2010 launch.

The demographic breakdown here is also quite noteworthy, as 77 percent of mobile readers are male, but female readers actually put in more time. While male readers put in about 33 minutes a month, female readers put in 277 minutes on average.

The biggest problem Worldreader faced in these regions, according to the group's director of communications Susan Moody, is that books simply haven't been on hand in those parts of the world. Thus, the group is trying to cultivate an interest in reading that simply hasn't been there before. But with e-books, it's a much easier process to bring a large quantity of reading material, and with more material on hand, there will also likely improve interest in the idea of reading in the first place. Indeed, 60 percent of respondents said that the biggest hurdle to reading on mobile devices was a matter of just not having enough to choose from, while 18 percent said that cost was the biggest hurdle. With more broadband connectivity reaching even the poorest countries, especially with things like Project Loon from Google, the ability to get access to content is only getting easier.

We've seen a lot about how the e-book movement is taking out the traditional gatekeepers of keeping people from publishing, but we don't get much about how e-books are likewise opening up reading where it wasn't often seen previously. Now, we're getting just that, and seeing how the power of connectivity is addressing some of the most basic problems in society. This is a development that's only likely to continue, and in the end, only likely to improve things worldwide.