America's reading crisis isn't about books. It's about effort. | Opinion

I can't imagine a world without books. But most Americans can, and effectively already do, live in that world.

A devastating piece in The Atlantic, "The End of Reading is Here," lays out just how much less Americans read and comprehend than they used to.

As a mother and a (regrettably, former) avid reader, I've seen this anecdotally. But the statistics confirm the worst fears of a woman who once read Dostoyevsky and Dickens for leisure: Fewer than half of U.S. adults read a book in 2021. In 2023, the number of Americans reading for pleasure has decreased by more than 40% over the past two decades. In 2024, only 35% of high school seniors were "proficient" at analyzing complex fictional themes. Elementary schoolers' basic reading progress has stalled.

"The decline in reading cuts across age groups, gender, and education levels. Even the demographics that traditionally read the most ‒ retirees, women, and college graduates ‒ have seen a collapse," writes author Rose Horowitch.

This slide from literacy to post-literacy will be devastating for us, our kids and Western civilization. But I don't think America's reading crisis is just about books – that's just the symptom.

It's about a culture that increasingly searches for reward before effort and treats it as a problem to solve rather than a virtue to cultivate.

It's the phones, isn't it?

My gut instinct as a millennial who came of age as the smartphone revolution took over the world is that electronics – specifically smartphones – are to blame. Digital entertainment reward the path of least resistance: Reading requires sustained attention; scrolling requires passive participation.

By the end of middle school, the average kid spends four and a half hours a day on social media. What little "reading" still happens comes in short bursts – 250-character posts on X, Instagram captions. Short-form video, YouTube, even podcasts, are what today's youth actually prefer.

"This explosion of textual fragments has come at the expense of devoting sustained attention to longer written works that convey rich and complicated information," Horowitch says.

Reading isn't valuable simply because books contain knowledge. It trains the mind to focus and tolerate effort before reward.

Even public schools prove this. A 2025 survey found that English teachers in middle and high school assign zero to four books a year. More than 80% of elementary-grade teachers say students get a school device by kindergarten, well before many kids can read a basic primer.

But when schools push back, it works: I wrote in May about Texas banning smartphones in schools for the 2025-26 academic year, and Dallas public school officials recently said library checkouts have increased nearly 25%.

Still, social media offers instant gratification and perpetual hits of dopamine that almost nothing else, especially reading, can match. We've become a society standing before a gumball machine full of chocolate, candy and toys, then wondering why so few people crave vegetables and lean protein.

Reading is only 'hard' because tech is so easy

I've experienced this slow transition myself, from devouring books to defaulting to my phone. I used to read every night before bed; now it feels easier to scroll. Millions of Americans have gone through the same thing.

Reading feels harder now that we have access to something easier. That trade, difficulty for ease, is happening across many other mediums.

The digital revolution has taken over other tasks, too, and constantly tempts humanity to bypass effort for convenience and ease: Why drive when the car drives for you? Why read when Netflix advances to the next episode without you clicking anything? Why do chores when, for about $20,000, a humanoid robot will do them for you? Why cultivate intimacy when porn is one tap away? Why buy groceries and cook dinner when you can DoorDash it, even if the cost nearly doubles?

We live in an era where technological advancements like artificial intelligence are no longer viewed as Orwellian but as proof of man's progress toward some higher existence, where not working isn't evidence of complacency or laziness but a post-industrial utopia.

That's just as bad, if not worse, than a lack of reading.

Human beings need to do meaningful things, whether that's paid work, reading, exercise, play or cooking dinner. If nothing else, for our own fulfillment, to say nothing of the societal benefit. Even basic chores boost dopamine and increase happiness. Exercise and decent work in good conditions can reduce, or even prevent, depression.

We will never be spiritually, emotionally or intellectually satisfied by automating our lives. Choosing to defer to our passive digital worlds over actively reading is just the tip of that iceberg.

Reading isn't more valuable than scrolling TikTok just because of its content, but because it demands effort before reward, difficulty before pleasure, sacrifice before satiety. A society wired only to pursue pleasure before pain will no longer create, work or flourish.

Nicole Russell is an opinion columnist with USA TODAY. She lives in Texas with her four kids. Sign up for her newsletter, The Right Track, and get it delivered to your inbox.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: America's reading crisis isn't about books. It's about effort. | Opinion

Reporting by Nicole Russell, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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This story was originally published July 13, 2026 at 3:03 AM.