Is Reading a Dying Activity?
Last year, after finishing my sixth semester of college, I spent a month subbing for a middle school. One day, while helping a student with her homework, I asked what books she and her fellow students read in English class. She responded, “We don’t read whole books. We read excerpts.”
Yesterday, on my daily commute to work, I tuned in to a podcast: Plain English by Derek Thompson. Staring out the subway window, I listened to “The End of Reading.” After hearing multiple anecdotes about a young person’s dislike of reading, I was reminded of my experience as a sub. I contemplated this and wondered: is reading dying?
The Pain Points
As I thought about the podcast, I learned something I hadn’t realized before: many college students can’t read long texts. Thompson interviews Rose Horowitz, a journalist who has written articles about dwindling reading statistics, on this very subject, and she reports that college students now have more trouble reading long texts than in previous years.
Horowitz interviewed thirty-three professors across many universities in the United States. She discovered that the literacy problem among college students is shockingly widespread. In fact, it’s been a topic of discussion at faculty meetings, and many professors have changed their courses to include fewer books in response to their students’ inability to read long texts.
In her interviews, Horowitz found a couple of common themes: students struggled to have articulate conversations about intricate texts, and many students had trouble navigating the small details of a text while also paying attention to the plot at large. A professor at the University of Virginia said that students shut down when they encountered ideas they couldn’t comprehend. The chair of the Georgetown English department, Daniel Shore, reported that students had trouble staying focused while reading sonnets, which are fourteen lines.
As a college English major, I understand that literacy may not be an intricate part of people’s lives the way it is in mine, but I always assumed that it was valuable and emphasized in schools. This trend of not reading whole books concerns me, and it should concern everyone in our society. If students at the college level are unable to grapple with hard topics and ideas, how are younger generations expected to do so?
The Roots Of the Problem
The reading problem isn’t exclusive to higher education. In fact, it has roots in high school and middle school. Many of the professors interviewed stated that their students weren’t required to read an entire book in high school or middle school.
Thompson tells a story about his neighbor’s child who was reading Animal Farm in high school; however, the student wasn’t reading the full text, only excerpts. Animal Farm is roughly 144 pages. High school students can’t read 144 pages?
I had a similar experience to Thompson. As a sub, I talked with many seventh-grade students who weren’t reading books but short stories that were given to them in stapled packets. I was astonished. In middle school, I read at least six books a year in English class. That experience fostered my love of reading and transformed me into the enthusiastic reader I am today.
It can be hard to fall in love with reading if you don’t get to read an entire book. I worry that students are missing an opportunity to become book lovers because they aren’t reading full texts in school.
How Has This Affected Reading Scores?
In 2024, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, reading scores were at an all-time low. Only thirty percent of eighth graders performed at or above proficiency level, while thirty-three percent performed below the basic level. The scoring was two points lower than in 2022 and five points lower than in 2019 (NAEP). The NAEP scoring includes all students, but it is important to note that students with learning disabilities tend to struggle with literacy at higher rates. Due to this emerging trend, in 2024, thirty-five literacy bills were passed in twenty-five states (NCSL).
Outside of school, people of all ages aren’t reading for fun as much as they used to. According to The American Academy of Arts & Sciences, Americans spent six minutes per day reading in 2018, which is ten minutes less than in 2003.
Why Is It Important To Read?
Reading has several benefits. Walter Ong, who wrote Orality and Literacy, said that reading promotes abstract thinking because it allows people to connect with other ideas and perspectives. Ong also believed literacy had the power to restructure our thoughts and make us smarter.
When reading, a person has to persist through challenging concepts that may not be immediately satisfying, an important life skill. Reading has also been known to promote critical thinking, self-reflection, empathy, and concentration.
I can understand that, for some, reading isn’t an easy or attractive way to consume media. Television, cinema, and even social media tell stories visually and are entertaining. In some ways, they fill the void that reading used to fill.
However, reading has one thing that television, cinema, social media, and any form of digital media do not have. When you read, you are put entirely into another person’s perspective. You get to live their life through them and gain access to their thoughts and feelings. Television and cinema can hint at this, but they can’t fully submerge you into the perspective of another person like reading can.
Reading immerses us in different experiences from our own and builds empathy and tolerance for others, which makes you a better and smarter person.
Another cool aspect of reading is that because there is no visual aspect, every reader has to rely on their imagination to create images of characters and setting. In this way, reading cultivates creativity. However, it is important to note that not everyone can create pictures in their mind, but that doesn’t mean that they are left out of the power of reading. There are books, such as graphic novels or Readeezy books, with illustrations to support their comprehension of the text.
A Possible Solution
To combat this problem, we’re going to have to band together and come up with multiple solutions to help increase reading. When I was in middle school, every English class started with twenty minutes of reading. During this time, students could read whatever they wanted. Because of this emphasis on reading during class time, students read many books each school year. This practice could be a possible solution.
Another solution is to emphasize book clubs for young adults, either in person or virtual. Offering a sense of community and friendship can help get people excited about reading who may not usually be so inclined.
I also think the biggest way we can help young adults become more enthusiastic about reading is by creating books that they actually want to read. Books about dystopian worlds, basketball, or video games could help kids pick up more books. For instance, Readeezy offers consumers this type of content: high-interest, low-reading-level books that are age-appropriate, fully illustrated and designed to hook readers from the very first line.
Literacy is more than just the ability to read, it is a tool that unlocks new worlds, perspectives, and knowledge. In the face of this emerging problem of declining youth literacy, it is now more urgent than ever to cultivate strong reading habits and tailor books to meet the needs of the most reluctant readers.
Sources:
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2024/11/the-elite-college-students-who-cant-read-books/679945/
https://podcasts.apple.com/at/podcast/the-end-of-reading/id1594471023?i=1000696773920
https://www.amacad.org/humanities-indicators/public-life/time-spent-reading#:~:text=The%20average%20time%20American%20adults,olds%E2%80%94from%202003%20to%202018.
https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/reports/reading/2024/g4_8/?grade=8
