The Chicago Tribune on how a society that stops reading stops thinking:
Neuroscientists have found that when people read, their brains don’t just process words — they simulate the story world. Functional imaging studies show that as a character in a book moves, sets goals or changes location, readers’ brains activate some of the same regions they would use to perform or imagine those actions in real life. In other words, to understand a story, the brain builds and constantly updates a lived simulation of it.
By contrast, social media rarely demands such deep simulation. Instead of sustaining a mental world, it delivers a rapid stream of novelty and cheap rewards — training the brain to skim, swipe and move on, rather than to linger, imagine and reflect.
One of those things sure sounds better than the other.
And yet recent data illustrate a shift in behavior that won’t surprise anyone — namely, that people are reading far less and scrolling far more.
Daily reading for pleasure in the U.S. has fallen more than 40% over the past 20 years — roughly 3% per year, according to researchers at the University of Florida and University College London.
The one bit of good news is that reading to children remained consistent over time. But given that this important stepping stone hasn’t yielded more leisure reading, something fundamental has changed.
We’re sure social media is a major culprit, siphoning away attention and time from more noble pursuits.
When Pew Research Center began tracking social media use back in 2005, just 7% of U.S. adults were using these platforms — today, nearly 70% are on Facebook, roughly half are on Instagram and 8 in 10 U.S. adults use YouTube. People are on these platforms for hours each day. Among teens, Pew reported that nearly half say they’re online “almost constantly.”
As people read less, opting instead for social media or other distractions, reading scores are also declining in schools. Twelfth-grade reading scores in 2024 were lower than in 1992 nationwide, according to National Assessment of Educational Progress results released earlier this month.
Turns out reading, like any other discipline, is a muscle that can atrophy if it goes unused.
We have skin in the game when it comes to reading. Of course we do. But more than that, we spend a lot of time thinking about this issue because a literate society is able to govern itself well and effectively; literate citizens can advocate for themselves, and they can champion causes that improve our well-being.
A society that’s not well read is also more likely to outsource tasks that require … thinking. We’re already seeing an increased willingness to forgo research and introspection in favor of deferring to AI — and concerns about artificial intelligence wiping out entire sectors of the economy is a common fear among many younger Americans, especially among those who just graduated and are struggling to find work.
But beyond that conversation, there’s reason to believe this trend has significant implications for society long term. Reading strengthens attention, memory and empathy by requiring sustained focus and imagination. Social media, by contrast, encourages rapid shifts of attention, shallow engagement and surface-level processing — which goes a long way to explain our decreasing ability to debate civilly and disagree.
If we want a thinking, feeling society, we must defend reading — with our habits, our homes and our schools. The simplest place to start: Open a book.
