[ CYPHER CODE #941 ]
The problem isn’t that students won’t read. It’s that the system stopped requiring them to.

[ CYPHER CODE #942 ]
Reading comprehension was treated as a given long after it stopped being one.

[ CYPHER CODE #943 ]
Colleges are absorbing failure, and so is the workforce.

BRIEFING

Grant here. Look, we all know that the prevalence of technology is a double-edged sword. Sure, it expands the mind, but it can also hinder growth as well. When kids can find online summaries with the click of a button, critical thinking skills go down, and as a result, a growing number of students entering college can't even read a sentence. Let’s break it down.

A growing number of college professors are saying something super unsettling: many students struggle to read and understand even basic course material, including the syllabus. Instructors are describing difficulty with sustained reading, following written instructions, and extracting meaning from simple, straightforward text.

As a result, professors are now reading aloud in class, slowing down assignments, and restructuring courses around guided comprehension instead of independent reading. They're literally slapping a bandaid on a gaping wound.

SOURCE

One shocked professor has described young adults showing up to class, unable to read a single sentence.

“It’s not even an inability to critically think,” Jessica Hooten Wilson, a professor of great books and humanities at Pepperdine University told Fortune. “It’s an inability to read sentences.”

Her observation reflects a broader trend: nearly half of all Americans did not read a single book in 2025, with the habit plunging some 40% over the last decade. And even with young people embracing BookTok, a TikTok subcommunity dedicated to books and literature, Gen Z’s reading habits still lag behind all other generations. Americans aged 18 to 29 read on average just 5.8 books in 2025, according to YouGov.

“I feel like I am tap dancing and having to read things aloud because there’s no way that anyone read it the night before,” Wilson admitted. “Even when you read it in class with them, there’s so much they can’t process about the very words that are on the page.”

And again, in this culture where "everyone gets a gold star in reading," these students are leaving colleges with this core skill still missing from their arsenal. They're adults entering a workforce and are still unable to sit down and read a book like The Great Gatsby.

But what's interesting is that some Gen Z's are reading, actually quite heavily, but it's reserved mainly for the most elite.

And despite Gen Z’s shift away from reading, the habit remains popular among the ultra-wealthy. A JPMorgan survey of more than 100 billionaires released last month found that reading ranks as the top habit that elite achievers have in common.

The consequences of declining literacy extend far beyond grades, classroom performance, or even future careers. Reading, Wilson said, is a way of seeing ideas from other people’s eyes—leading to increased empathy and feeling of community.

“I think losing that polarization, anxiety, loneliness, a lack of friendship, all of these things happen when you don’t have a society that reads together.”

DEBRIEFING