I’m probably not the only person during Banned Books Week pondering how much reading people are doing during this age of algorithms trying to keep people online. You’ve probably heard news reports or anecdotal evidence about people reading less. Well, I went and found one of the actual studies that doubtless fueled some of those news reports. Basically, Americans have been “reading for pleasure” less and less over the past 20 years or so… as per “The decline in reading for pleasure over 20 years of the American Time Use Survey” published last Fall.
Apart from a partial resurgence in reading during the depth of the Pandemic, I’d say I followed the same decrease until roughly 2 years ago, when I snapped back into regular reading. In fact, Banned Books Week was actually an annual reminder that I should be reading. Indeed, from that same paper above, the authors note:
Extensive research has explored the benefits of reading, from direct gains in comprehension skills,2,3 vocabulary, logical reasoning, imagination, emotional intelligence, and empathy,4 to links with academic achievement, financially rewarding employment, career growth, and involvement in civic life.5 Reading may also promote health, reducing stress, anxiety, and depressive symptoms,6,7 supporting better sleep8 and slowing cognitive decline in older adults,9 as well as increasing longevity.10 Impacts of reading can also extend beyond the individual level, with shared experiences in reading being important for bridging cultural gaps, increasing understanding, and building a sense of belonging and identity.4
Basically, I should be reading. You should be reading. If you have screenagers, as many of us do, they should be reading.
Which then gets to: what do we do with all the screens? How bad is it?
On the one hand, pretty bad. As near as I can tell, that academic paper kicked off a minor scare, epitomized by Rose Horowitch’s July 2026 article for The Atlantic, “The End of Reading is Here.” (In fairness, many folks said “wait” like Joel Miller and Michele Caracappa). And you can also dive deeper into her thoughts with a good interview by PBS Newshour and one with Derek Thompson.
I feel somewhat heartened that Horowitch mentioned she comes from a family of readers (there’s a room in our house that is very much a library with enough books to appear as if they’re an overgrown garden)… yet she has decreased her overall reading (the “to read” bookshelf is now two unruly shelves). Our world is now dominated by screens, a world those of us with kids have grown up in. You have to be purposeful to escape the engagement entrapment algorithm.
I recently got to spend some time catching up with a bunch of friends of my vintage, many of them have kids (see ‘screenagers’ above). While methods to encourage reading amongst the kindern, many of us need to consider putting the oxygen mask on ourselves. One vintage friend mentioned how they really needed to be outside on a regular basis, which is an O.G. way to unplug and, frankly one that encourages less screen time for safety reasons alone. Also, have you ever read or journaled next to a waterfall? I highly recommend it. (and if no journal, I still heartily recommend waterfalls).
But I digress about nature. This is supposed to be about reading. I’d have to think back to recall all the factors that pushed me to read more late in 2024. Wanting to recharge my writing was part of it and trying out Storygraph, a tool for tracking your reading and making recommendations, was another. It “gamifys” the act of reading just a touch the same way a fitness tracker might, encouraging you to get to those 10,000 steps… or in this case, pages. That free tool, and availing myself of my local libraries (you can have library cards at multiple library systems, you know), meant the barrier to picking up a new book was drastically lowered. Granted, leaning into the convenience has meant I’m checking out ebooks and audiobooks, which certain bibliophiles will stand in judgment about. I’m not escaping screens, after all.
But how bad are screens? Intuitively, I hope we can all admit that they’re not as reflective and relaxing as a waterfall and that unplugging is an important thing for all of us to do. However, the current research does appear to be mixed as PBS News: Horizons looked into (that video was also the nucleus of this post). If you have the half hour, it gets into a lot more nuance you may find helpful. I still think it’s good for most of us to unplug more… and to read more.
Of course that does leave us with the inevitable judgment of certain bibliophiles that, when it comes to books, only treeware will do. Reading on tablets is sinful and audiobooks? Why that’s not reading at all (and definitely also sinful).
As probably comes as no surprise, I’m Team John Green on this one, just as I was Team Stan Lee before. The exact medium of reading is not as important as the voracious curiosity… not unlike getting regular exercise in some fashion is more important that waiting around to exercise until you have the perfect, optimized exercise plan. If you want a bigger rundown, people have run some studies about reading retention via different mediums, and the bottom line is there are differences… though maybe not as statistically significant as some partisans would want. I would join many of those partisans in wanting more studies and more substantial studies, but my big takeaway is that if I’m reading a more technical or dense work, I am better off with treeware and definitely better with focusing on it (versus, say, listening to an audiobook while cooking). Fair enough. Richard Feynman famously got inspired to do some world-class physics by spying a spinning plate in a cafeteria, but I’m not Feynman… or even a physicist.
I promise not to try and learn quantum mechanics by audiobook if book scolds promise to duck off at my reading for pleasure. That’s right physical-book-only crew. I’m lumping you together with the book censors. Both attitudes result in attacking curiosity — and I don’t have time for that. I have books to read. Frankly, so do you. And if you still have some ire, expend it on the book censors. We’re all Team Freedom to Read, after all.