Source: The Atlantic
by George Packer
“By now we’ve moved beyond a post-literature culture into what some are calling a post-literate age, taking us back several thousand years to communication by images and symbols. Over the past two decades, the number of Americans who read for pleasure on a daily basis has dropped from 28 percent to 16 percent, and the trend among children and teenagers is even worse. In 2023 almost half of Americans didn’t finish a single book. Surveys show that a big loser is fiction. Perhaps this plague of illiteracy has played a role in the disappearance of truth and, with it, liberal democracy.” (10/30/25)