A sweeping new study from the University of Florida and University College London has found that daily reading for pleasure in the United States has declined by more than 40% over the last 20 years — raising urgent questions about the cultural, educational and health consequences of a nation reading less.
Published today in the journal iScience, the study analyzed data from over 236,000 Americans who participated in the American Time Use Survey between 2003 and 2023. The findings suggest a fundamental cultural shift: fewer people are carving out time in their day to read for enjoyment.
“This is not just a small dip — it’s a sustained, steady decline of about 3% per year,” said Jill Sonke, Ph.D., director of research initiatives at the UF Center for Arts in Medicine and co-director of the EpiArts Lab, a National Endowment for the Arts research lab at UF in partnership with University College London. “It’s significant, and it’s deeply concerning.”
It’s clear that abundance and affluence have led the people astray. It’s the age-old cycle: strong men create vast libraries, only to breed weak, attention-deficient children whose wrists aren’t strong enough to hold a hardcover book. Enough hand-wringing, enough brow-furrowing, enough impotent op-eds and thinkpieces. What we need is some of that old-time, god-fearing religion. I’ll get us started with a sermon.
The Book of Marginalia, 3:1–18
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And it came to pass, in the years of Plenty, that the people went a-whoring after idols of Glass and Light.
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They forged golden calves named Android and iPhone and fed them their hours without number.
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And their priests were called Influencer, and their censers burned incense of Notification.
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And behold, their thumbs sought the end of the river of images, and found none.
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Then the Codex cried in the wilderness: Make straight the path of attention.
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For the word is not in the whirlwind of clips, nor in the earthquake of trends, nor in the fire of the doomscroll—
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But in a still small sentence.
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Take up thy cross of concentration and follow daily.
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Sell what thou must and buy a little time; anoint thy head with silence and wash thy face of blue light.
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Dog-ear the corner that thy days may be measured, not counted.
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Teach thy children letters, that the night forget us not.
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For the calves glitter and perish, but the paragraph endureth.
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Selah.
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Set a watch upon the gates of thy attention; at the morning and at the even lock the door.
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Read aloud, that the word may dwell in the room and drive out the household gods.
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Hide a book in thy going out and thy coming in; one for the road and one by thy bed.
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When thou hast finished, write a little, that thou mayest repay the debt of delight.
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Peace be upon the quiet, and upon all who keep the useless hour.