What the panic over Gen Z’s reading habits gets wrong

A trove of recent articles bemoan the collapse in recreational reading among younger Americans, with Covid-related reading declines, artificial intelligence and social media often described as causes.

But as the authors of “How Gen Z Discover and Consume Books,” we think many claims about Gen Z’s reading behaviours miss the mark.

Some long-standing, influential studies aren’t designed to capture how Gen Z often reads: multimodally – bouncing between print, e-book and audiobook for the same book – and on web platforms such as Wattpad, Webtoon, Kindle Unlimited, DC Universe Infinite and Marvel Comics online.

In fact, according to our 2025 data, a growing proportion of Gen Z – 66% – is identifying as readers, up 14 percentage points from 2022. In the previous 12 months, 65% of Gen Z read at least one print book, up from 59% in 2022. These findings roughly correspond with those of the Pew Research Center for the general population across all ages.

In other words, Gen Z shows us that reading isn’t dying. It’s changing.

A postdigital generation of readers

Gen Z is the first generation to grow up with internet access from an early age. Kids born from 1997 to 2012 came of age during what researchers describe as the postdigital condition, where the option to be online is constantly and pervasively available. Nowadays, no matter your age, engaging with printed books...

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