It’s worth recalling that mass literacy is only about 300 years old, so the modern culture of private reading is only slightly older than the United States, which is probably itself a consequence of mass literacy - sparked by Luther, Gutenberg, etc. Ironically, today the USA is also probably leading the decline in mass literacy woth a “post-literate president.” Maybe book-reading will eventually become an anachronistic hobby, although even Thomas Jefferson made this dire prophecy too about fiction [1].
“Acoustic representations activated in silent reading are best characterized as inner speech rather than as abstract phonological codes.” [2]
US is still near the top globally, though, and other countries like Germany had a bigger drop in reading performance that started earlier, so your point still stands.
itchingsphynx · · focus · HN ↗
“Acoustic representations activated in silent reading are best characterized as inner speech rather than as abstract phonological codes.” [2]
1. <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/2026/08/reading-crisis-postliterate-age/687618/?gift=j9r7avb6p-KY8zdjhsiSZyM-26EN9jpQa5BZoBCHLjE" rel="nofollow">https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/2026/08/reading-crisis-...
2. <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.3758/BF03205520" rel="nofollow">https://link.springer.com/article/10.3758/BF03205520
claiir · · focus · HN ↗
[1]: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programme_for_International_Student_Assessment" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programme_for_International_St...
myrmidon · · focus · HN ↗
<a href="https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/pisa-2025-results-volume-i-country-notes_2d4ff9ea-en/united-states_0c8cbc7c-en.html#title-6698f6f173" rel="nofollow">https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/pisa-2025-results-volum...
US is still near the top globally, though, and other countries like Germany had a bigger drop in reading performance that started earlier, so your point still stands.