The rise of the post-literate society | DW News

When was the last time you read a book ? If it was this month or this year, then you're already part of the exception . Recent studies show a staggering decline in reading books . In contrast, there's a sharp increase in other media consumption , particularly short-form videos . We're actually now sort of finding it much harder to focus on a book even if we wanted to . So, I really think it's a change in technology . Rose Horowitz recently wrote a viral article titled The End of Reading Is Here , and she explored a phenomenon you're probably familiar with : ever shorter attention spans, difficulties concentrating for longer periods , and struggles dealing with complex ideas . Yes, so this is a trend that's been going on for a long time , and it was sort of started with the television , which crowded out time that people used to spend reading . Um, I think by 1985, the average American household spent 7 hours a day in front of the TV . So, it just substitutes in a lot of time . Then, you know, with streaming and internet and smartphones, it becomes, you know, even harder to find time to sit down with a book . And, you know, I argue that that over time, um, you know, these social media platforms, which might have initially, you know, been kind of text-dominant, are now switching to short-form videos . And that's kind of getting us so accustomed to switching between, you know, different frames , switching between something if it doesn't immediately grab our attention . They were actually now sort of finding it much harder to focus on a book even if we wanted to . So, I really think it's a change in technology . And rather than just being a cultural blip, this might signal a watershed moment in human civilization . Yes, so in my article, I argue that we're entering a post-literate society . And, you know, we know from the statistics that, you know, people are reading much less than they used to . The share of Americans who read a book or an . And, you know, I think what's significant about that is not just, you know, the the decline in in it, you know, people reading a a few different books or but really that we are having a wholesale movement away from text . And I argue in the piece that, you know, the communications media that we use kind of shape the way we interact with one another . They shape the way we think and take in information