By Fallon Head | Web Editor
When I joined my high school journalism program, one of the first things I was taught was that we shouldn’t write above a sixth-grade reading level because that was the reading proficiency of the average American.
I’ve listened to conversations where phrases like “No need to use a SAT word” and “I’ll just ask ChatGPT to summarize it” are thrown out over and over. I’ve been instructed to skim over texts instead of thoroughly reading, as if the details of one word choice over another can’t change an entire paragraph’s meaning. The decrease in reading as a hobby and for class is an issue because it reflects the low literacy rate of our country, but also points to the current struggle we have with taking the time to understand things fully, especially when we disagree with them originally.
According to a report by Worldmetrics in 2026, 47% of adults read below the sixth-grade reading level. This creates problems with communication, especially in online settings. Additionally, people aren’t reading books.
In a 2025 survey by YouGov, 40% of Americans didn’t read any books that year. In another report by Worldmetrics, the average person in North America spends a little under three hours a day on social media. While both are forms of entertainment, social media is designed to keep a constant stream of dopamine running through your brain to keep you distracted, but a book makes you slow down and process as you go.
The lack of reading comprehension, combined with the small number of people reading books at all, is concerning not because it’s a shift in where people find their entertainment, but because it’s extending the culture of a non-stop lifestyle. Without reading, there is less practice in processing what words actually mean.
Social media feeds on emotional responses to the first few words in a sentence, where people stop listening to understand and start listening for their personal beliefs to be reinforced. This mindset is also seen in generative AI models where the program may write a response to affirm someone’s leading question, even if most of the data available says the opposite.
The focus on quick responses and the idea that anyone who thinks something different than you is automatically wrong does not drive productive discourse. When we combine emotionally charged topics with zero face-to-face communication and the fact that the average American struggles to understand written language, we become stuck.
The lack of people reading books reflects the bigger issues driving the large political, economic and educational divides in this country. Sitting down with a sci-fi or fantasy novel lets someone immerse themselves in a world they know nothing about, with characters who may or may not live similar lives, but we still end up rooting for the main character because we take the time to learn the world and their motivations. Sitting down with memoirs or history books makes people look at the world we already know at a time or angle we’re not familiar with.
Yes, a lot of the experiences emotionally gained from a book can also be gained by watching a TV show or movie, but sitting down with a book makes it an active mental workload to visualize the words being said. TV shows allow for a passive absorption while multitasking on social media or chores, which takes away from the importance of details in media and in real-life discussions and experiences.
Taking the time to pick up a book to read in someone’s free time, whether that’s a physical, audio or digital book, forces us to slow down and sit with a life that isn’t our own while also increasing things like attention span, literacy rates and cognitive function. All of which will help us take the time to actually hear each other and look for understanding instead of a reason to walk away.
