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Despite AI fearmongering and negative social media narratives, Gen Z might be reading more than you’d think – albeit in untraditional ways.
If you’re searching for stats on Gen Z reading habits, the results are often confusing. One report suggests young people are giving up on books – deeming them a ‘waste of time’. Another, published in the same year, states reading has never been more in vogue.
Amongst all the AI fearmongering and negative social media talk, Gen Z are usually dubbed an anti-reading generation. The tradition of sitting down with a book is no longer associated with young minds. But is this accurate?
Online library Everand, which offers millions of audiobooks, ebooks and more, recently published a ‘State of Reading Report’ to explore Gen Z’s literary habits. The research found that young people are actually reading a lot more than we’ve been made to think – albeit in untraditional formats.
According to Everand, young readers stated that reading made them ‘feel more connected and less alone’. This is particularly interesting given the social media platforms available to today’s young people. On the face of it, apps like TikTok and Instagram are providing seemingly endless forms of connection with the outside world, but in reality, a large portion of Gen Z feel more isolated than ever.
As we grow more reliant on our digital devices, we put less effort into real-life means of connection. Reading, while a solitary process, is a way of engaging our brains and slowing down – it also teaches us empathy by allowing us to see the world from a different point of view.
In fact, 28% of readers reported that social media had influenced their reading habits to a great extent. But this doesn’t necessarily mean it had stopped them from reading. Rather it had provided new ways of engaging with a text.
Communities like BookTok and Bookstagram have grown rapidly in recent years, connecting younger audiences to other readers and providing outlets through which they can share their reading journeys.
34% of readers said they believed reading has actually become more popular thanks to social media platforms, with young readers the most likely demographic to credit them for positively influencing their reading habits.
