The decline of reading is eroding the public's ability to challenge fascism and populism, according to a new book and recent polling, as fewer people possess the perspective and analytical tools to counter extremist narratives. A YouGov poll found that 53% of 18-24 year olds had no opinion on whether the recent masked demonstrations in Dover and Portsmouth were a legitimate form of protest, while 43% of all adults were either unaware of or not following the story.
Distraction and the Rise of Post-Literacy
The polling figures highlight one of the most worrying aspects of the current era: the decline of reading, says Guardian columnist John Harris. Millions experience the phenomenon of struggling to maintain attention on a book or article while being tempted back to the ephemeral attractions of a phone. A background in the pre-digital world helps people not only follow events but also clarify and contextualise them, Harris argues, citing the fear many felt watching the port demonstrations as being full of perspectives gleaned from years of reading books and newspapers.
Hypothetically, TikTok users can skip through 260 videos in under 35 minutes. This distracted, quick-fire way of receiving information may be responsible for the YouGov statistic, which showed that 53% of people aged 18-24 did not have a point of view on whether the masked demonstrations were a legitimate way of protesting. The spectacle of black-clad men wanting to 'reclaim our borders' and claiming to protect women and girls was pitched halfway between Oswald Mosley's blackshirts and the Ku Klux Klan, with balaclavas adding a flavour of the Troubles, but those receiving information as a jumble of random moving images would know little of this context.
Statistics on the Decline of Reading
The new book The New Dark Ages: The End of Reading and the Dawn of a Post-Literate Society by Times columnist James Marriott marks a potentially transformative moment for societies. In the 20 years since the UK's National Literacy Trust began tracking children's reading, there has been a 36% fall in the number who say they enjoy reading in their spare time, to its lowest level on record. In 2024, the Guardian reported a Reading Agency survey that found 35% of adults were now 'lapsed readers', meaning they used to regularly read for pleasure but 'rarely or never' do so anymore.
The Atlantic magazine recently ran an article headlined The End of Reading Is Here, in which author Rose Horowitch wrote: 'The literate era will prove to be a brief interlude between the oral and digital ages.' A program director at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences ran focus groups with high-school students about recreational reading, concluding that 'most thought of it as an alien practice'. Marriott noted that some professors reported that students seemed 'almost unable' to read, not just unwilling.
Impact on Democracy and Information
In Britain, more than 320 newspapers closed down between 2009 and 2019, a statistic followed by the stark suggestion: 'It is increasingly possible to get through life without any exposure to the news at all.' The resulting ignorance is firewalled by phone screens, making it feel as if only angry, paranoid, and visually shocking content can break through. Because of the decline of reading, those who purvey nonsense and poison can be increasingly confident that fewer people will encounter anything halfway critical or analytical.
The screen age is exemplified by Donald Trump, who, according to an economic adviser in his first term, 'won't read anything – not one-page memos, not the brief policy papers, nothing'. Marriott writes that Trump 'doesn't supply evidence for his ideas. Rather than organising his information analytically via clauses and subclauses in the manner of literate communication, he merely piles up assertions'. This style extends to other figures, such as Sean Duffy, Trump's secretary of transportation, who rejoiced in the quest to do away with start-stop ignition buttons, a case that would look ridiculous in written form but was warmly greeted when barked out as a 'pet peeve'.
Future Without Books
Marriott writes: 'Mass literacy is a recent phenomenon. So is mass democracy. We simply don't know whether one can survive without the other.' On millions of screens, fascist faux-militias, populists, and merchants of loathing blur into acrobatic skateboarders and trick-performing dogs, stripping them of context and normalising their rise. Inch by inch, we move towards a future with echoes of the past that too many people will have failed to understand, and this time, there will be no books to burn, because we will have stopped reading them.
