If your internet media cloud is anything like mine, you’re currently being bombarded by tales of yet another ongoing crisis: no one is reading anymore. Recreational reading is increasingly rare, university students cannot finish full length novels, and kids in schools can barely spell their name. And that’s bad, because of course it is. I mean, it’s reading. Everyone knows that it is good for you. And I’m not saying it isn’t, at least not exactly. I believe that there’s a conversation worth having in here. But I also think we’ve lost track of some important nuance, because whatever is happening, it is bigger than just the (supposed) unpopularity of books.

So, are we in a reading crisis? And if we are, who is the culprit? The game, dear Watson, is afoot!

[yes I know the green screen is a mess, I tried my best -_-]

-
00:00 - intro
07:31 - the stats
17:05 - reading is not *that* special
34:52 - in defense of leisure
51:02 - outro

-
Great thanks to @HZLCDY for doing the quote read at a very short notice!

Highlighted Sources:
1. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/2026/08/reading-crisis-postliterate-age/687618/
2. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-01407-w
3. https://cognitivewonderland.substack.com/p/attention-spans-arent-shrinking
4. https://www.apmreports.org/episode/2019/08/22/whats-wrong-how-schools-teach-reading
5. https://ilcuk.org.uk/fewer-of-us-are-adding-life-to-years-as-we-add-years-to-life/
6. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/04/americans-work-free-time-67-hours/678021/
7. Zoe Bee – “The Educational Seduction of Jordan Peterson”: https://youtu.be/dOMiiCmoFHM
8. Lady of the Library – “The "End of Reading" Panic Is Missing the Real Problem”: https://youtu.be/1Th-i2RTv3A
9. Library Ladder – “A Brief History of Popular Fiction -- 130 Years of US Bestseller Lists”: https://youtu.be/kidRLsemRUc
10. Boostrap Paradox (me,,,) – “content-fication of books was already here, AI just made it worse”: https://youtu.be/kYUF0KshIvo

Full citations/further reading: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vNN8fUzC42jwA8UBL5k0iMWbUkyh9zB3

For all the videos from sources/further reading, you can also go to this playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZP5D1hTSIiI&si=H23QcqdbMji8PdCh

Music used in this video:
Purple Music – Jump Up [https://www.purple-planet.com/]
Vivaldi summer presto: Music by Jerome Chauvel from Pixabay
Vivaldi spring allegro: https://youtu.be/WN70oTv7WWg

-
Did you know I wrote a science fiction novel? “Up the Entropic Hill” is a queer, existential space opera that will also leave you questioning reality. It’s also pretty funny, or so I’ve been told. You can get it here: https://mybook.to/BbA39

Find me outside of YouTube here:
https://substack.com/@mattiebukowski
https://www.tumblr.com/mattie-bukowski
https://bsky.app/profile/paradox-nerd.bsky.social

Support my endeavors by visiting my ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/mattiebukowski