When language weakens, clarity becomes critical

Over twenty years as a Swedish language teacher, I have seen reading ability change. That shift has consequences far beyond the classroom — not least for businesses.

I began teaching upper secondary Swedish in 2003. A few weeks ago, while cleaning out my office, I came across a binder of assignments I had used with a vocational class in 2004. Assignments that students in today’s academic programmes would struggle to complete.

Back then, I handed out the assignment, explained what they were expected to do, and they began reading and writing. If we were lucky, we could use the computer lab, which the entire school shared.

Today, I hand out the same type of assignment and hear:
“What? Do we have to read all of this? That’s so much text.”
I walk through the task step by step. I have to pause at basic concepts and words, explaining in detail what is expected. And still, I know that many students will fail. Not because they lack intelligence — but because they struggle to read and write. They are present in every classroom.

We can no longer assume that everyone around us can read and write in a functional sense. These students are not illiterate in the traditional meaning of the word. What we are seeing instead is a form of functional illiteracy. They can read individual words and short sentences, but they cannot understand, interpret, or apply written text in everyday life. They struggle to follow instructions, cannot manage longer texts, contracts, or forms.

At the same time, modern life exposes us to thousands of words every single day — through phones, computers, public spaces, and screens. One telling example: if you watch your favourite series for an hour with subtitles on, you read roughly 11,000 words. Add mobile scrolling and workplace reading, and the volume of text becomes enormous.

Society is becoming increasingly text-based, while language proficiency is becoming increasingly uneven.

Why does this matter for companies in Sweden?

When users find reading difficult, many skim rather than read, become stressed or fatigued, and disengage quickly. At that point, it no longer matters how good your product or service is. Language becomes the product.
This may be an individual limitation — but its effects are systemic: lower conversion rates, increased support requests, and fewer users who actually understand the value being offered.

For many users with reading difficulties, digital products and services become impossible to use. They get stuck during onboarding. They do not understand what buttons do. They leave silently. Companies conclude that the product itself is not good enough — when the real problem is that the language is too complex, too abstract, and unnecessarily difficult to process.