Reading declines – or just shifts?

Another new report tells us what we’ve heard before: fewer Americans are reading for pleasure. A study in iScience, covered by The Guardian and Publisher’s Weekly, found that on an average day only 16% of adults read a book, newspaper, magazine, listened to an audiobook, or opened an ebook for their own enjoyment. The National Endowment for the Arts adds that fewer than half of Americans have read a book in the past year.

At first glance, it sounds grim. But to really understand what’s happening, we need to drill down on the “for pleasure” part of these studies.

We often treat reading as a wholesome, almost morally superior activity. A “reader” is imagined as curious, intellectually engaged, and striving to better themselves. But what if, for many people, the motivation really is pleasure—entertainment, not self-improvement?

Seen that way, maybe the data doesn’t show a decline in curiosity or seriousness at all. Maybe it’s simply a substitution: books, magazines, and newspapers giving way to TV, movies, and social media. Especially since most people read at home, and post-COVID, many are spending even more time at home, the switch tracks.

Entertainment options have exploded. Where books were once one of the most accessible pastimes, they’re now competing with endless streaming, gaming, and online feeds. From this perspective, the decline in reading looks less like cultural decay and more like consumer choice.

Still, substitution isn’t neutral. As the study points out, reading is associated with better school performance, stronger financial outcomes, and even improved health. It’s a more mentally active pursuit than watching video, and that matters.

I haven’t looked for them yet, but if I were to dig into my substitution hypothesis, I’d need to look for studies that really dive into why people read. Also, I’m curious if there are comparative studies between types of entertainment. For example, a study that placed rates of reading side by side with TV, film, and social media use might reveal more about what’s really going on.

What I’m arguing for here is that in these investigations we should keep interrogating the moral weight we attach to reading itself. Does a novel “count” if it entertains more than it enlightens? What do we lose—or gain—when reading shifts from self-betterment to simple pleasure? As I wrote in my last blog post (Beyond Blanket Judgments: Presence Over Prejudice in Experiencing Art) we need to not apply blanket judgments to art forms, as in “books are good, TV is bad”.

To answer the question of why people are reading less, we need to understand and respect why they read in the first place. Given the individual and social benefits of reading, it’s an important phenomenon to unpack.