"I'm pretty sure that two generations ago, they would have been more like I was: always with their nose in some volume, looking up only to cross the street or to guide a fork on their plates. But today, even in our book-crammed home, where their father is often in a cozy reading chair, their eyes are more likely to be glued to a screen."
"In 1988, I read much of Anna Karenina on park benches in Washington Square. I'll never forget when a person sitting next to me saw what I was reading and said, "Oh, look, Anna and Vronsky are over there!" So immersed was I in Tolstoy's epic that I looked up and briefly expected to see them walking by. Today, on that same park bench, I would most certainly be scrolling on my phone."
Tween and adolescent readers are spending less time reading books for pleasure and more time on screens and digital devices. Even in homes filled with books and adults who read, children often prefer phones or tablets. Personal habits have shifted from immersive book reading in public spaces to scrolling on devices. A vivid memory of reading Tolstoy on a park bench contrasts with the likelihood of using a phone there today. Survey data show a dramatic decline in leisure reading among high-school seniors between 1976 and 2022, with the previously common habit of reading many books becoming much rarer.
Read at The Atlantic
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