Why Isn't Gen Z Reading?

Everyone spends all their time on their phones. Yes, this is probably exactly what your mom said to you the other day. But let’s be real – she’s not wrong. As the generation on the cusp of growing up surrounded by social media and remembering what going to school without a smartphone is like, there are many things we are forfeiting in favor of our phones. The most important one, I’d argue, is reading for pleasure and, more specifically, reading for depth.

A recent study by Walton Family Foundation and Gallup found that many young people simply don’t enjoy reading. Even more concerning, the report highlights how schoolwork more often than not, fails to spark curiosity and excitement. If, growing up, reading is framed mainly as homework, a tedious task, then why would anyone choose to keep doing it once class ends?

For centuries, books were the main source of entertainment. They were the Instagram, YouTube and TikTok of their time. But they also weren’t just entertainment, they were the primary way people built empathy, wrestled with ideas, and reflected on the world around them. Growing up, I’d watch my mom, night after night, open a classic novel (most of the time it was the Anne of Green Gables series) and be fully encapsulated by its contents. She would spend hours “experiencing another world” as she called it. Not just because found pleasure in it (although her giggles gave that away) but because she walked away contemplating how the lessons learned by the characters could relate to her own life. Unlike my mother, we cannot ignore the fact that Gen Z is reading less, and when we do read, it’s often to escape our own lives, or to read stories that mimic the endless-scroll format we’re used to.

For most of us, sustaining attention on a 400-page novel feels impossible when our phones are buzzing every 30 seconds. Platforms like TikTok and Instagram reward us for consuming content in tiny, addictive bites. That rewires our brains to expect stimulation in bursts, not in long stretches; we’ve all heard the speech. Sitting with a book that unfolds slowly over hundreds of pages feels like running against the current of how our brains are now trained to process information. It’s no surprise that many young readers give up halfway through or never pick up a book at all.

What’s more is having to wait days (or even weeks for our slower readers) to finish a novel when, instead, you can get a hit of dopamine in seconds. The entire digital ecosystem tells us that satisfaction should come immediately: one click, one swipe, one laugh and done. Books, by nature, oppose that. They require patience. They demand a willingness to push through moments of confusion or challenge. But in a culture where patience often feels outdated, books start to feel like a burden rather than an escape.

The Atlantic recently wrote about elite college students who arrive on campus unable to finish full books. Professors say many incoming freshmen are so used to reading short excerpts or articles in high school that they lack the endurance for long texts. These students often avoid dense material altogether because it feels overwhelming. In short, they’ve been trained for snippets, not sustained thought.

But it’s not hard to see why, for those who do read regularly, comfort reads dominate their shelves. It’s sounding like a broken record, but living in an age of climate anxiety, economic uncertainty, political chaos and a 24/7 news cycle that never seems to stop shouting can really do that to you. So it makes perfect sense that we reach for stories that offer romance, fantasy or quick thrills; worlds where the problems resolve neatly in a few chapters and the love interests get together within fifty pages.

New surveys even show that Gen Z gravitates toward books that feel familiar and safe; Library Journal notes that many young readers prefer genres that provide predictability and a sense of control in an unpredictable world. And while there’s nothing wrong with escapism, it can definitely be found in even the most challenging books, if it becomes the only kind of reading we do, we miss out on literature’s harder but most rewarding gift, reflection. Books that don’t tie up neatly, that leave you thinking or that force you to confront uncomfortable truths are often the most important ones. 

Losing the habit of deep reading isn’t just about missing great stories. It’s about losing one of the most powerful tools for empathy, critical thinking and creativity. A good book will slow you down, force you to sit with new and provoking ideas and help you see the world through someone else’s eyes. The best books make you pause, and ultimately teach you something. If all we consume are fast, easy stories, we risk becoming passive rather than reflective; we’ll be good at scrolling but not at thinking.

So in an age when romanticism is the key to doing unwanted tasks, here’s a challenge: get cozy, light a candle and pick up a book that doesn’t promise instant answers. Read slowly, even if it feels frustrating. Let yourself wrestle with hard ideas. Mark passages that make you stop and think. The future doesn’t belong to the fastest scrollers. It belongs to the thinkers who can pause, reflect and get lost in a book.