Vox via MSN: “…Americans still consume plenty of text. Social media platforms teem with words — even video-based apps like TikTok are replete with captions and comments. And on average, we spend more than two hours scrolling through such platforms each day. But not all reading is created equal. The mind can skim over the surface of a sentence and swiftly decode its literal meaning. But deep reading — sustained engagement with a longform text — is a distinct endeavor. As neuroscientist Maryanne Wolf explains, when you give your complete attention to a stimulating book or longform article, you activate a wide array of the brain’s linguistic and cognitive capacities. In this contemplative state, the reader rapidly draws connections between the text and their background knowledge, generating original thoughts in the process. And this vital form of reading is in sharp decline. In 2021, American adults read fewer books on average than in any year on record, according to Gallup. Among young Americans, the dwindling of deep reading is especially stark. In 1984, some 35 percent of 13-year-olds said they read for fun “almost every day,” according to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). By 2012, that figure was 27 percent. By 2023, it had fallen to 14 percent. Similar declines have transpired among the nation’s 9-year-olds and late adolescents. Meanwhile, daily screen time among all age groups is surging to record highs.

Even among the rising generations’ academic elite, reading books is an increasingly niche hobby. According to a recent report from The Atlantic’s Rose Horowitch, many students at America’s most selective colleges now lack the capacity (or at least, the wherewithal) to read a book cover-to-cover. In the view of some analysts, these trends don’t just threaten to curtail bookworms’ literary lives or stunt young Americans’ intellectual development. Rather, digital media’s displacement of books is propelling our species back to an ancient mode of cognition and communication: After a brief dalliance with literacy, humanity is returning to its oral roots…”