The Pew Research Center conducted a study in 2021 that revealed 23% of U.S. adults had not read a single book in the past year.
Intriguing as the numbers are, the steady decline of reading among Americans over the years is the focus of the National Endowment for the Arts.
Skylar Wilson, a sophomore sports management major from Frisco, Texas, said the reason for a decrease in print-only reading may be because audiobooks have become popular and are much easier to use for students who have a busier life nowadays.
“If you compare the two, now and then, I feel like our lives are so much more fast-paced,” Wilson said. “People’s attention spans aren’t very long anymore because of, like, how fast-paced things are.”
Older people usually have more time to read, and a lot of younger people are spending their time on social media. It’s easier than sitting down for however long to read a book, Wilson said.
According to the Survey of Public Participation in the Arts conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau in 2002, in 1982 56.2% of U.S. citizens read books consistently, in 1992 54%, and in 2002 46.7%. Including the increase in population, this report shows a decrease of reading in the U.S.
The organization reported that over the past 20 years, age groups between 18 and 24 have declined by 28% from being the most likely to read literature to the least likely.
Mackenzie Ghaemmaghami is from McKinney, Texas. The sophomore pre-med economics major said she has read only one book in the past year, and that her reading has been mostly fantasy lately due to the rigorous coursework she has.
Leaning back in the chair and looking up to think, Ghaemmaghami said she could not recall many people she knew that read much.
“I don’t think either my dad or my mom are super big readers, and to be entirely fair, they’re both very busy people. So they don’t ever have downtime to sit down and read,” Ghaemmaghami said.
She said the lack of free time for most people is probably why the number of Americans who haven’t read a book in a year has risen to 23%.
Reading at Risk: A Survey of Literary Reading in America, a report issued by the National Endowment for the Arts, reported that from 1982 to 2002 literary reading in ages between 18-24 dropped 28% and between the ages of 25-34 dropped by 23%.
A senior history major from Midland, Texas, said he tries to read four books a month in the cycle of one history, political, classic, and novel.
Paul Dehlinger, the historian for the Young Conservatives of Texas, aims for 52 books a year. Dehlinger said that most of the books he reads are audiobooks due to their convenience and his schedule.
“Especially for our generation, attention spans are becoming shorter. There’s also some time constraints,” Dehlinger said. “I mean talking with my parents, I think school on all levels is more stressful.”
The deterioration of reading in the U.S. has concerned some professionals; however, to many college-age students the change to audiobooks has not spoiled reading, but made it more accessible, although a physical copy may be preferable sometimes the Pew Research study found.
“I think people like having a physical copy. For one you can just loan it out to a friend if you need to, there’s a certain level of pretentiousness there too,” Dehlinger said. “I mean, I own a bookshelf that has all my books on it so I can show people who come into my house that I have a lot of books.”