It used to be embarrassing to admit you’re not well-read, but now it’s totally acceptable — if not chic.
asserted
it → use → ?
In a Monday Instagram video for Interview Magazine, influencer and social media megastar Alix Earle was asked: “What’s the last book you read?”
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you → ask → Magazine
“I’ve never read a book,” the 25-year-old said without embarrassment, curled up in a bathrobe in Milan.
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old → read → Milan
Apparently one of the most famous Gen Z women in the world — who boasts 8.7 million followers on TikTok and nearly 6 million on Instagram — thinks it’s cute to admit that she’s never read a book.
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she → boast → book
That’s a terrible message being sent to the millions of girls who look up to her and follow her on social media, where she became famous with her “get ready with me” videos.
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she → ’ → videos
She’s part of a larger generational trend.
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She → ’ → trend
I’ve even heard from my own friends, in their 20s and early 30s, that they barely read, if at all.
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they → hear → 20s
One recently told me she’d read two books in her entire adulthood.
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she → tell → adulthood
But, it’s not just Gen Zers spending more time on their phones instead of the pages.
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it → ’ → phones
People of all ages are turning their backs on sitting down with a good book.
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People → turn → book
In 2025, the American Time Use Survey analyzed 20 years of data from almost a quarter of a million people and found that the percentage of Americans who read for pleasure on a given day has nearly halved in recent decades, from 28% in 2004 to 16% in 2023.
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who → analyze → 2023
Worse yet, while typical 15- to 19-year-olds spend 1.3 hours a day using the computer for fun, they spend just nine minutes on average reading for fun.
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they → spend → fun
In the UK, just 32% of children and teens say they enjoyed reading for pleasure — a 36% decline since 2005.
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they → say → 2005
It’s not just that young people don’t want to read.
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people → want → ?
Increasingly, they’re pretty bad at it.
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they → ’re → it
Only a third of American high school seniors got “proficient” level reading scores in the 2024 NAEP exams.
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third → get → exams
We have a crisis on our hands.
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We → have → hands
A generation is growing up glued to their devices, sucking up easy-to-consume content.
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generation → grow → content
They’ve never experienced the serendipity of discovering an unexpected idea in a book or the satisfaction of finishing a difficult novel.
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They → experience → novel
Hell, they’re probably too TikTok-brained to get through one, even if they tried.
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they → ’re → one
You’d think colleges and universities would be fighting against this trend, demanding kids keep their literary skills sharp.
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kids → think → skills
Instead, they’re capitulating to the decline in student interest in reading — as though it’s somehow optional.
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it → capitulate → reading
Professors at elite universities say that their students are shocked they need to read multiple books in a semester, according to reporting from the Atlantic.
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they → say → Atlantic
Some professors have even taken to trimming down the length of assignments or scrapping readings entirely.
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professors → take → readings
Even at Columbia University, the required undergrad Literature Humanities course has been cut back.
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course → cut → University
The school removed the 500-page tome, “Crime and Punishment,” from the reading list in 2024 in hopes that it will encourage students to actually engage with the roughly twenty remaining books students read over the course of the year.
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students → remove → year
A college professor I recently spoke to also told me that he’s taken to assigning educational videos instead of readings when possible, because students are more likely to actually watch them.
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students → speak → them
How’s that for terrifying!
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that → ’ → terrifying
Thankfully, not all Gen Zers are smartphone-addicted illiterates.
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Zers → addict → ?
Book clubs have become more and more popular; Eventbrite, an app many Gen Zers use to send invitations, reported that book club events were up 33% year-over-year.
BookTok, the book-oriented corner of TikTok, is exploding in popularity.
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BookTok → become → popularity
Publishers Weekly even estimated that the app was responsible for 60 million book sales in 2023.
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app → estimate → 2023
There’s also a number of girls wearing sweaters and tee shirts proclaiming that “reading is sexy.”
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reading → ’ → sweaters
These trends are heartening, but we should all be distressed about our turn away from reading.
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we → read → reading
An educated, literate populace is necessary for building a healthy society — and especially a healthy democracy.
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populace → build → society
Maybe Alix Earle could pick up a book and share that with her followers, rather than another makeup video or bikini picture.
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Earle → pick → video
If we let algorithms fill that empty space where reading once was, we risk heading down a scary path.
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we → let → path
The Aporia
