Why College Students Are Losing the Ability to Read

Mon, 15 Jun 2026 06:58:39 +0000

In lecture halls from Delhi to New York, a silent crisis is unfolding. Professors who have taught for decades are reporting a phenomenon that was once unthinkable: a significant portion of their students can no longer finish a book. It isn’t that they are illiterate in the traditional sense; they can decode words and navigate social media with lightning speed. However, when faced with a 200-page monograph or a complex historical text, their cognitive stamina fails. They are, as one professor recently noted on Reddit’s r/technology, experiencing a “measurable, generational collapse in sustained reading and writing.”

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Why College Students Are Losing the Ability to Read