Reading longer texts fostered our empathy for others. How will we cope without it?
Any monk still producing calligraphy after 1492 probably sensed he was working in an outdated medium. I write texts of more than 30 words, so I now feel the same. Digital reading appears to be destroying habits of “deep reading”. Stunning numbers of people with years of schooling are effectively illiterate. Admittedly, nostalgics have been whining about new media since 1492, but today’s whines have an evidential basis.
In the white paper that underlies the Ljubljana Manifesto, experts catalogue the ravages of digital reading: “Recent studies of various kinds indicate a decline of . . . critical and conscious reading, slow reading, non-strategic reading and long-form reading.” In the 2021 international Pisa survey, 49 per cent of students agreed that “I read only if I have to”, 13 percentage points higher than in 2000. The paper continues: “As much as one-third of struggle even with lower-level reading skills.
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