Why Reading Matters

Last week, Rose Horowitch published a splashy Atlantic article titled ​“The End of Reading is Here.”​ (Ironically, given the subject matter, it weighed in at over 8,500 words.) Horowitch’s argument, which elaborates on similar concerns recently raised by commentators ​such as James Marriott​, is that distracting digital technology has led to a sudden and radical reduction in reading. Here are just some of the data she cites to back up this claim: Less than half of all adults reported having read a book of any kind in 2022. Only 38% read a novel or short story. The proportion of American adults who read for pleasure on any given day has fallen from 28% in 2004 to 16% in 2023, while the proportion who read to a child is down to 2%. Over 60% of high school seniors struggle, to varying degrees, with interpreting text. Nearly 30% of American adults cannot paraphrase a multipage text (representing a 50% increase from a decade ago). Between 1984 and today, the proportion of 13-year-olds who…