I read an article that test prep is killing teen reading. Schools are focusing on reading segments of books to improve context questions on standardized tests. So they assign a lot of excerpts rather than full books.
It may well be a contributor but looking at the date I can make a better educated guess.
Seems like the trend really kicked several years before tiktok was released, if that’s what you were thinking.
ETA it does line up fairly closely to Instagram’s release in 2010 though.
I wasn’t thinking TikTok or any app in particular. It’s the emergence of apps and the internet in general that turned the screw in the late ‘90s.
Think about the change in youth culture from 1997 to 2007. It moved online.
On the other hand, nerd culture thrived in those years
My daughter’s bookshelf has:
Complete Harry Potter
Complete Twilight
Complete Hunger Games
Complete Mortal Instruments
First four Percy Jackson
And bunches more
I suppose, although video games were already in full swing by then as well.
I was looking at the fairly drastic change that’s shown from around 2012 to present.
Correlates with the rise of the smartphone.
My son was a voracious reader until a teacher in school required him to read 25 books in a semester, none of his choosing so he couldn’t slip a good one in to get him through. That was in 8th grade. He loved it until he was forced to do it. I’m all for assigned reading, but there should be some moderation in the quantity and quality.
He also has the Complete Harry Potter, along with a lot of Brandon Sanderson (sp). He still reads quite a bit, but not like he did when he was a kid.