Is the 'Death of Reading' Narrative Wrong?
7 71Has the rise of hyper-addictive digital technologies really shattered our attention spans and driven books out of our culture? Maybe not, argues social psychologist Adam Mastroianni (author of the Substack Experimental History): As a psychologist, I used to study claims like these for a living, so I know that the mind is primed to believe narratives of decline. We have a much lower standard of evidence for "bad thing go up" than we do for "bad thing go down." Unsurprisingly, then, stories about the end of reading tend to leave out some inconvenient data points. For example, book sales were higher in 2025 than they were in 2019, and only a bit below their high point in the pandemic. Independent bookstores are booming, not busting; at least 422 new indie shops opened in the United States last year alone. Even Barnes & Noble is cool again.
The actual data on reading, meanwhile, isn't as apocalyptic as the headlines imply. Gallup surveys suggest that some mega-readers (11+ books per year) have become moderate readers (1-5 books per year), but they don't find any other major trends over the past three decades. Other surveys document similarly moderate declines. For instance, data from the National Endowment for the Arts finds a slight decrease in the percentage of U.S. adults who read any book in 2022 (49%) compared to 2012 (55%). And the American Time Use Survey shows a dip in reading time from 2003 to 2023. Ultimately, the plausibility of the "death of reading" thesis depends on two judgment calls. First, do these effects strike you as big or small...? The second judgment call: Do you expect these trends to continue, plateau, or even reverse...?
There are signs that the digital invasion of our attention is beginning to stall. We seem to have passed peak social media — time spent on the apps has started to slide. App developers are finding it harder and harder to squeeze more attention out of our eyeballs, and it turns out that having your eyeballs squeezed hurts, so people aren't sticking around for it... Fact #2: Reading has already survived several major incursions, which suggests it's more appealing than we thought. Radio, TV, dial-up, Wi-Fi, TikTok — none of it has been enough to snuff out the human desire to point our pupils at words on paper... It is remarkable, even miraculous, that people who possess the most addictive devices ever invented will occasionally choose to turn those devices off and pick up a book instead.
The author mocks the "death of reading" hypothesis for implying that all the world's avid readers "were just filling time with great works of literature until TikTok came along."
7 comments
Re:Garbage (Score: 5, Funny)
by parityshrimp ( 6342140 ) on Saturday February 07, 2026 @07:54PM (#65975348)
This is the first line from the linked article. Complete garbage, I stopped reading after that.
Behold, the death of reading.
Re:Book Sales != Books Read (Score: 5, Insightful)
by test321 ( 8891681 ) on Saturday February 07, 2026 @08:28PM (#65975374)
It might surprise you, but that's a common thing. People get interested in books, but then don't make up time for reading. A long time ago as graduate student I did not have internet at home, I was purchasing *and* reading a book every week, whether an essay or a novel. Now I have internet and also a busy life, and I can't make up time for reading anymore. I probably could, but there so many other things I can push forward even on nights and week-ends: my main job, my side hustle, a hobby (e.g. street photography), contributing to some FOSS, trying to play an instrument again, playing with the cat, or, you know, waste time online.
Repeated story every 20 years (Score: 5, Informative)
by gurps_npc ( 621217 ) on Saturday February 07, 2026 @06:48PM (#65975258)
Every 20 years or so, we get a "Death of Reading".
Printing press caused the death of reading by creating newspapers and cheap pamphlets. ...
Mass produced Paper back books...
Comic Books...
Color Magazines
The internet...
Smart Phones...
No. People that want to read, still read. The common folk that never read the 'right' words never read what the elitists think they should read. Book sales remain steady - though formats do change. We have a lot more ebooks and a lot less mass market paperbacks than we did 40 years ago.
Re:Repeated story every 20 years (Score: 5, Insightful)
by hadleyburg ( 823868 ) on Saturday February 07, 2026 @08:03PM (#65975358)
Every 20 years or so, we get a "Death of Reading".
Printing press caused the death of reading by creating newspapers and cheap pamphlets. ...
Mass produced Paper back books...
Comic Books...
Color Magazines
The internet...
Smart Phones...
No. People that want to read, still read. The common folk that never read the 'right' words never read what the elitists think they should read. Book sales remain steady - though formats do change. We have a lot more ebooks and a lot less mass market paperbacks than we did 40 years ago.
And as usual, the argument on both sides can sometimes be lacking nuance.
On on hand, it is not a "death" of reading, probably a reduction.
And on the other hand, these panics every 20 years are not without basis, and probably worthy of some concern.
Re:Wrong (Score: 5, Interesting)
by broohaha ( 5295 ) on Saturday February 07, 2026 @07:54PM (#65975344)
Public School teachers no longer assign book reports because their moronic snowflakes can not be bothered to read a full classic and then summarize it to write a simple report
Are you a parent, and has this been your kid's experience? Because that's definitely not my middle-schooler's experience. She's on her fourth book of the school year for which she'll need to write a report.
I don't doubt there are other schools out there that have had to abandon book reports, but I wonder how widespread it is. We're not in a particularly competitive school district (unlike our neighbors), so I don't think there's anything special about the kids in this school.
Re:real stats (Score: 5, Insightful)
by martin-boundary ( 547041 ) on Saturday February 07, 2026 @07:46PM (#65975332)
Did Goodreads/Kindle take into account the variable number of words on a "page" due to ebook formatting?
In print books, since mass market printing appeared, the number of words on a page is fairly well defined due to standard physical page sizes, typefaces, spacing and margins. This makes it possible to have a reasonably objective definition of pages of content, modulo a small number of variations in book formats across publishers: So we all have a rough idea of how many words can be crammed into an average book page.
In the case of ebooks, the concept of "page" as a unit of information content is not meaningful, because everyone can change the display settings and reflow the text at will.
You should be quoting number of words read in 2025, versus 2024.
The Death of Reading (Score: 5, Interesting)
by Local ID10T ( 790134 ) on <ID10T.L.USER@gmail.com> on Saturday February 07, 2026 @08:35PM (#65975380)
...has been greatly exaggerated. (to paraphrase Mr. Twain)
Source: I own a bookstore.
Short attention span is a real thing. It has effected me and many others of my age. Personal computers, the internet, and mobile phones all came along during our lives. When I was young there was no (publicly accessible) internet, a trip to the library was a rare event, and no one was going to waste good money buying a book for a child. As I grew up and had my own means, books became plentiful in my life. As a teen BBSs came about. Downloads took FOREVER for even something simple. ... Now everything is available online instantly. Information and entertainment in short, easy, bites. I certainly feel the urge to switch topics as soon as something becomes "boring", to sample and move on.
But... people still read. The more educated people read a lot as they grew up and throughout their studies, and it is a habit they have maintained. Those who struggled thru high school barely read then, and don't read now. The children who grew up with phones and tablets in hand, they DEMAND that their parents buy them real physical books. There are definitely generations in the middle who just don't read -anything. They proudly announce that they have never read an entire book in their lives. But, fortunately, they are not everyone. Reading is a habit for some, and not for others.