How the internet, smartphones, social media, and now generative AI are accelerating a drop in the reading of longer works like books

twenty-three hundred years ago, the legend goes, King Ptolemy I of Egypt asked his court adviser to assemble a comprehensive collection of the world's written works.

The Atlantic 2026-07-09 Rose Horowitch

Context & Ripple Effects

The related coverage traces a progression from television and networked devices to social platforms and generative AI as successive pressures on sustained reading. Earlier coverage also focused on AI-generated books and personalized articles, linking changes in attention habits to changes in the supply of written material.

This matters because generative AI is positioned in the corpus not only as another screen-mediated distraction but as a system that can produce more text tailored for rapid consumption, while related analysis questions the creative quality of heavily post-trained models.

First-order effects

Generative AI adds another competing use of readers’ time and another channel for short, on-demand written output, intensifying the pressure on long-form reading described in the coverage.
Writers and publishers face a more crowded text market as AI-generated books and personalized articles expand the volume of available material.

Second-order effects

Publishers and platforms may have to compete more directly on discovery, trust, and the distinctiveness of human-made work rather than on text volume alone.
If personalized AI reading products capture attention that would otherwise go to books or longer articles, demand for conventional long-form formats could become harder to sustain even where print and ebooks remain available.

Third-order effects

The broader risk is a bifurcated reading economy: abundant, individualized and quickly consumed text on one side, with sustained attention for longer works becoming a scarcer and more deliberately cultivated practice on the other.
Whether that shift endures will depend partly on whether AI output becomes compelling enough to retain readers; the related coverage itself raises doubts about the creative quality of current post-trained models.

The trend: This is one data point in the convergence of attention-fragmenting media and automated content production, which is reshaping both how people read and what gets written for them.

Discussion

@joshkraushaar Josh Kraushaar on x
“Trump is our first postliterate president. It is difficult to imagine him being elected leader of a country where information is primarily spread through text.” https://www.theatlantic.com/ ...
@ashleyrparker Ashley Parker on x
Somehow, in @rosehorowitch's fantastic (and depressing) Atlantic cover story (!) on our postliterate age, I find this stat to be the most gutting: “In the study of 236,000 American adults, only 2 percent read to a child on a given day.” https://www.theatlantic.com/ ...
@mviser Matt Viser on x
THE END OF READING IS HERE Optimists once believed that universal literacy was inevitable. Now it seems that the age of reading might be a short anomaly in human history. Just a phenomenal piece of writing, which is worth a read, from @rosehorowitch: https://www.theatlantic.com/ …
@sfmcguire79 Steve McGuire on x
At Harvard, a student thought A Clockwork Orange was written in “Old English” and used AI to “translate” it. Others “view reading as an unnecessarily burdensome way of acquiring knowledge” and think professors who ask them to do it are “arbitrarily withholding information.” [imag…
@metzgov Bryan Metzger on x
i've always felt sort of lame describing “reading” as a hobby or interest of mine. after all, isn't that just something everyone does? well, increasingly, not really. from @rosehorowitch's piece on the decline of literacy in The Atlantic [image]
@_zeets Zito on x
Blows my mind that people allowed tech companies to convince them that they didn't need the simple and critical abilities of reading, writing, and being able to think on their own. That passively consuming short form video content and giving up your brains to LLMs was freedom.
@dkthomp Derek Thompson on x
The Atlantic's new cover story by @rosehorowitch is absolutely definitive on the end of the age of reading in America—and the emergence of a new post-literate age in modern life Some core facts and anecdotes: 1. Reading is shrinking. The share of Americans who read for pleasure
@charlottealter Charlotte Alter on x
Absolutely harrowing @rosehorowitch story about the End of Reading. We might be on the verge of a new Dark Ages. We're probably already there. [image]
@dominicjpino Dominic Pino on x
American public education is a 13-year program to make people hate reading, and it is very, very effective.
@taylorlorenz Taylor Lorenz on x
Great piece but the headline is misleading and I worry will make it harder to address the problem at hand. People are reading more than ever per the article, they're just losing comprehension skills. That seems like a much more difficult problem to fix https://www.theatlantic.com…
@sketchesbyboze @sketchesbyboze on x
The most disturbing anecdote in this essay is from a grade-school teacher saying that on their first day of school kids used to cry because they missed their moms, and now they cry because they don't have their tablets. If this isn't fixed, it means civilizational collapse.
@tinywriterlaura Laura Elliott on x
this whole article is well worth a read but this section certainly does make me understand twitter a lot better. there are a number of people on here using a text-based social site when they can't properly parse written text, and so they miss the point and start arguments [image]
@kristinaparts Kristina Partsinevelos on x
“Optimists once believed that universal literacy was inevitable. Now it seems that the age of reading might be a short anomaly in human history.” 😞 https://www.theatlantic.com/ ...
@emmabgo Emma Goldberg on x
sending this extremely good @rosehorowitch story to my friends who made fun of me for remembering to bring Middlemarch to Mexico City but forgetting to pack any socks https://www.theatlantic.com/ ...
@andrewaoyama Andrew Aoyama on x
If reading is over, then how come this, by the great @rosehorowitch, is so compulsively readable? Makes you wonder... https://www.theatlantic.com/ ...
@brianstelter Brian Stelter on x
Marshall McLuhan once predicted we'd wind up in a “post-literate” world. And now we have arrived, @rosehorowitch argues in a brand-new cover story for The Atlantic, “The End of Reading is Here.” https://www.cnn.com/...
@annbauerwriter Ann Bauer on x
“Literacy created the conditions for inner concentration, extended focus, and logical deduction. It allowed for a new kind of rational, linear, and analytical thought.” That's what we're giving up by not reading. Concentration, focus, logic. It shows. https://www.theatlantic.com/…
@andrewdlewis Andrew D. Lewis on x
Stunning read by @rosehorowitch on the Cultural decline of reading as part of the American intellect. Big implications downstream for future Gens. https://www.theatlantic.com/ ...
@afinetheorem Kevin A. Bryan on x
The fundamental problem here is that schools and universities *ask* students to read less. We don't have to do this! You can in fact assign as much reading as you used to a decade ago, and test on it. Do your part to uphold the culture, gang.
@yuanyi_z Yuan Yi Zhu on x
I thought the author was dooming too hard, but then I went to the Comments section of a piece I did for a newspaper and came to realise most of the pundits BTL could not parse relatively simple English prose.
@tahrahoops @tahrahoops on x
This was a harrowing read. The rise of the post-literate age is bleeding into liberal democracies. Devoid of nuance, it creates slopulism and easy villains. The best way to trounce your opponent is to hold on to your version of simple truths to achieve power over broken systems. …
@thestalwart Joe Weisenthal on x
Everyone's getting Meyrowitz and Ong-pilled https://www.theatlantic.com/ ... [image]
@brandyljensen Brandy Jensen on x
somewhat funny to decide to summarize this long story by using bullet points with bolded text for the important parts
@annbauerwriter Ann Bauer on x
“Nearly 30 percent of American adults cannot paraphrase or make inferences from a multipage text.” I share @DKThomp's horror. It's the primary reason we created @Storyaliz. We're determined to make a difference but it's an uphill battle. Even free users just don't read. At all.
@aatif_rashid Aatif Rashid on x
Pretty bleak article for a lot of reasons, but the big thing that stood out to me as a teacher is how schools are actively making the reading crisis worse by reducing the number of books they assign in high schools. [image]
@adriennelaf Adrienne LaFrance on x
New in The Atlantic this morning: an extraordinary cover story by @rosehorowitch. If you're generally only reading tweets, emails, texts, and machine-generated sentences, you should really, really read this story (and after that, a novel!): https://www.theatlantic.com/ ...
@cszabla @cszabla on x
atlantic “end of reading” piece may be the first I've seen to connect mockery of “performative reading” to the decline of the humanities as part of the lost status of literacy as short form video influencers become “the guardians of culture” [image]
@benkrauss5 Ben Krauss on x
This is really sad, but it should also encourage anyone who wants to get a leg up in life to take reading and thinking critically about the text your reading seriously! Just because everyone stopped doing it doesn't mean it won't help you personally/professionally. Every smart
@athenaeumbc @athenaeumbc on x
The situation is so much more desperate than you probably realize. University professors are saying they're now unable to teach history because reading long books and passages is how a person learns history. Their students are simply incapable of reading more than a few pages.
@jonathanchait Jonathan Chait on x
“The literate era will prove to be a brief interlude between the oral and digital ages.” @rosehorowitch has written an essay that will be remembered for years. https://www.theatlantic.com/ ...
@maxwelltani Max Tani on x
is this bad? [image]
@stevemorris__ Steve Morris on x
Not exactly original but thinking recently about what's left of the supposed advantage of being a college-educated white-collar professional. The implicit deal of giving up knowing how to work with your hands was that your brain was nurtured and structured to read and think
@nick_field90 Nick Field on x
“I had a student who had a very strong reaction to starting school,” she said. “Typically, students cry maybe the first couple weeks and say they want their mom. But this student would cry for her tablet.” https://www.theatlantic.com/ ...
@robkhenderson Rob Henderson on x
“Text is thriving among a dwindling proportion of the population. Just 20 percent of adults accounted for more than 80 percent of all books read last year. It's becoming a kind of niche hobby, like stamp collecting or growing orchids” https://www.theatlantic.com/ ...
@sketchesbyboze @sketchesbyboze on x
“Gambling has become a more common leisure activity than reading a book.” This is just unimaginably bleak. [image]
@spencerklavan Spencer A. Klavan on x
If present trends continue, they mark not the end of reading but the end of mass literacy, turning books back into what they used to be: the special super-weapon of a minority class whose mental powers, I propose, will outstrip those of the average mind as greatly and
@bobbyfijan Bobby Fijan on x
This summer my 11, 9 & 7 year old are required to read for 2 hours every day. Any book they want AND I pay them for every one they finish It's so important that kids learn the discipline and also to just cram a whole bunch of stories in their minds. [image]
@moshik_temkin Moshik Temkin on x
Our elites are proudly trying to take us all back to the Middle Ages, when only a cloistered few scholars knew how to read, the masses toiled and died young in crushing poverty and illiteracy, and a few wealthy overlords owned all the land and lived in decadent castles.
@nickbaumann Nick Baumann on x
I see what you did there, @rosehorowitch: https://www.theatlantic.com/ ... [image]
@bencjacobs Ben Jacobs on x
This has gotta be sponsored content for @rosehorowitch's feature in the Atlantic today
@eigenrobot @eigenrobot on x
have we accounted for immigration here. because that seems likely to be relevant 🤔
@eggerdc Andrew Egger on x
a clarion call from @rosehorowitch https://www.theatlantic.com/ ...
@joycecaroloates Joyce Carol Oates on x
evolving consciousness of Homo sapiens: turning away from literacy. was it predictable? is it inevitable? from an objective viewpoint we have to conclude that whatever is, simply is. however, Homo sapiens is not distributed evenly throughout the world. cultures rise, reach
@daveweigel David Weigel on x
The point here about what books *are* selling is so depressing. People walk past Roth and Faulkner and Bellow to read YA Elf Slop IX: An Elven Wedding https://www.theatlantic.com/ ...
@bigmeaninternet Malcolm Harris on x
If you are interested in working on or otherwise supporting a decentralized pro- reading project/social intervention, fav this tweet. Especially if you're in Philly https://www.theatlantic.com/ ...
@roddreher Rod Dreher on x
Mass disinterest in reading is a gift to future totalitarians. True, Germany was a highly literate society when Hitler came to power, but he solidified his power through radio, which had far more emotional immediacy, and discouraged reflective thought. Weimar America is here...
@clivedavisuk Clive Davis on x
“It's becoming a kind of niche hobby, like stamp collecting or growing orchids.” From @rosehorowitch's piece in @TheAtlantic on the decline of reading. https://www.theatlantic.com/ ... [image]
@owroot O.W. Root on x
We are leaving modernity and its mass literacy and moving into something else and something older. We are returning to tradition! The tradition of illiterate peasants, to games, to bread and circus!
@allegraehobbs Allegra Hobbs on x
You MUST actively combat the deterioration of your own brain!! I've started turning my phone off for hours at a time. I put it in another room while I'm reading. I set aside time to read for pleasure and do it even when it feels challenging because my mind is ping-ponging.
@nathanjrobinson Nathan J Robinson on x
ok but it's better not to read at all than to read The Atlantic
@bethanyshondark Bethany S. Mandel on x
A short distillation of why we homeschool the way that we do. I would venture 90 to 95% of what our kids do is read a book and then tell us what they read.
@tonyannett Tony Annett on x
This is bad. Democracy emerged alongside mass literacy. What happens when this goes away?
r/IfBooksCouldKill r on reddit
The End of Reading Is Here
r/neoliberal r on reddit
The End of Reading Is Here
r/atlanticdiscussions r on reddit
The End of Reading Is Here
r/TrueReddit r on reddit
The End of Reading Is Here - Optimists once believed that universal literacy was inevitable. Now it seems that the age of reading might be a short anomaly in human history.
r/ABoringDystopia r on reddit
The End of Reading Is Here
r/Longreads r on reddit
The End of Reading is Here
r/books r on reddit
The End of Reading Is Here: Optimists once believed that universal literacy was inevitable. Now it seems that the age of reading might be a short anomaly in human history [gift link].
r/TrueLit r on reddit
The End of Reading Is Here
r/longform r on reddit
The End of Reading Is Here

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