Are the Youth of America Reading Enough?

In the chaotic, fast-paced world that we live in, it seems impossible to keep up with everything going on social media and in the news. But while we’re attempting to catch up, we tend to forget a factor that has shaped generations of children before: reading.

In the U.S., literacy rates have been dropping. The Nation’s Report Card released results that showed that average reading scores had dropped to their lowest since 1992. A 2025 study revealed that reading for pleasure instead of for educational or job-related purposes has fallen by more than 40% for both adults and children.

The problem is clear: people in the U.S., both adults and children, are not engaging with literature enough.

Carol Jago, associate director of the California Reading and Literature Project at UCLA, told the Associated Press, “To be a good reader, you have to have the stamina to stay on the page, even when the going gets tough.”

Gloria Mark, PhD, a professor of informatics at the University of California, expressed her concern in an interview with the American Psychological Association. Youth are spending a lot of time online, but young children’s brains aren’t mature enough to have self-control over their attention spans.

“I find it problematic that we’re putting children into a digital world before some very critical mental functions are fully developed. I don’t think kids are really ready for that,” Dr. Mark states. This early exposure to social media can lead to addiction, which means shorter attention spans and less stamina to read.

Furthermore, Benjamin He, a writer for The Teen Magazine and a yearbook editor-in-chief at Evergreen Valley High School, also noticed the decline of reading in his peers. “Short form content is only around like 7 to 15 seconds long nowadays,” he stated. “I think it’s definitely shortening people’s attention spans.”

Eboni Harris, an author and librarian at Teen HQ in San José, disagrees. She believes that youth haven’t stopped reading less. Rather, they have just switched locations for where they’re reading.

“I think [kids] are reading differently. Back in the day, they read more physical books, but that’s what was available,” Ms. Harris stated. “I find that when teenagers read online, and they download things, they prefer to read things that are written by their peers. So they’re reading more on WattPad and Ink It and fanfiction and such.”