Why is language above 6th (?) grade not understood? My grandfather and father (10th and 12th grade) did not have this problem. Seems dumbing down education and newspapers enabled this. Usually people's reading comprehension is broader than spoken words. We allowed this denigration of education.
Honestly, I’m not sure. I think social media has a lot to do with it. But I can say that a lot of the manual/online help I wrote had to be targeted around the 7th grade level. Mostly because instructions needed to be processed quickly, so the writing had to be clear, concise, and easy to read.