Ideas In Contagious

One of the biggest issues facing the field of education today in the United States is a decrease in the amount of reading done by students. Not only has reading been proven to be crucial for improving literacy skills and critical thinking, it is also responsible for having positive effects in other areas of knowledge like mathematics and the sciences. Reading for children has been seen to decrease dramatically as a child progresses from elementary to high school, possibly due to the increase of outside influences like cell phones that take much of a student’s time in the form of social media. The ideas in Contagious can be applied to improve literacy skills for both middle and high school students by creating school programs that utilize the
Along with it serving as a necessary tool for competing, the wristband would also serve as a public advertisement for the program, bringing the act of reading, a process often hidden and done in private, to the forefront so that it leaves a behavioral residue for other students to imitate. Berger states that the use of a marker which makes a product more public can contribute to public “residue” that lingers and promotes ongoing social transmission. This effect combined with immediate social transmission resulting from the leaderboard and prizes can allow the program to be truly effective throughout the entire school year. As more students take notice from the wristbands that their peers are actively reading, they will be likely to imitate that behavior. This effect should improve literacy skills and participation rates overall. This effect of public residue can be combined with another concept that is incredibly powerful in young adults: Practical Value. Berger proposes that the type of information that people share is a representation of themselves. Therefore, people are inclined to share information that makes them seem cool and interesting. Young adults especially are known for always trying to win over their peers to appear as unique and trendy, whether it is having the latest video game or clothes. The reading program can use this concept in the form of prizes that are handed out to students from being consecutively ranked at the top of the leaderboard. Participants will tell their friends the “useful information” that they can possibly score a prize too, if they just take the time to sit down and