The art of reading for its own sake – unstructured, ungraded, and unfiltered by curriculum demands – has always been a vital gateway to critical thinking and imagination. However, in today’s world, the environment in which students and youth are growing up is more focused on standardised testing and getting ‘good grades’. The structured nature of modern education leaves little room for exploration. Students are taught to treat books as tasks, rather than treasures.

Especially now, as youth grow up in the digital age and with new information being offered to them at the touch of a button, their perception of the wealth of books is changing. With multiple platforms competing for attention, long-form reading may feel unnecessarily slow or irrelevant. This is also contributed to by the prefrontal cortex, responsible for decision-making, self-regulation, and focus, which is still developing in teenagers. This can make it harder to resist distractions or prioritize long-term rewards over immediate gratification.

However, these short forms of content rarely provide the depth of thought that reading helps to foster and grow. This is critical when considering how youth develop resilience and adaptability, skills deeply linked to sustained intellectual engagement.

What Are The Cognitive Costs of Less Reading?

Reading for pleasure does more than just build vocabulary; it exercises the brain’s ability to think critically, empathise with diverse and multiple perspectives, and question assumptions. All very valuable and needed life skills that we will all fall back on to use at some point during our lives. Without this practice, our youth risk becoming passive consumers of information without even realising it, which leaves them vulnerable to misinformation. Research on neuroplasticity suggests that the adolescent brain is at a pivotal stage of growth, especially throughout the teen years and into early adulthood. Experiences during this time – like sustained reading – can build neural pathways essential for executive functioning and analytical thinking.

A lack of reading also impacts emotional intelligence. When teens discover and read about complex characters and narratives, they enhance their capacity for empathy. Fewer opportunities for this type of engagement could weaken these skills, or falter their development, making it harder for them to navigate social or moral complexities later in life.

What Can Be Done?

To address and change this trend, it is absolutely necessary to regrow a sense of curiosity and ownership in young readers. We need to engage them in shaping the way they interact with books. Giving teens the freedom to choose their own materials – be it graphic novels, non-fiction, or traditional classics – can reframe reading as a personal choice rather than a chore.

Additionally, the education system must stop treating reading as simply a task to help your grades whilst you go through school. I firmly believe that the way reading is being treated now is because youth are growing up to believe that it is only a tool to help them pass their education. Incorporating and encouraging unstructured literacy into the curriculum will bring back the freedom to read, making it more enjoyable for youth to act upon themselves.

When you take away the added stress that school puts on reading because of the curriculum, students are more likely to pick up books on their own.

The Role of Technology

Reading habits among the younger generations today have also transformed significantly with the addition of technology. The measure of their engagement with reading can no longer be judged solely by whether or not that have a physical book in their hands. Instead, reading now often occurs on their phones, tablets, and computers – platforms that seamlessly integrate into their daily lives.

From articles and e-books to interact content and graphic novel apps, teenagers are engaging with written material in diverse and innovative ways, which only further blurs the lines between traditional reading and digital literacy. Stories, ideas, and information are consumed and shared in an increasingly connected world, no longer just through books.

Steps Toward Change

The challenge is not to force young people back into traditional reading habits but to reimagine how we introduce and nurture the joy of reading in schools. The education system must begin to acknowledge that reading today spans far beyond physical books, encompassing digital platforms and diverse formats.

By shifting away from rigid assessments and treating reading as a graded task, schools can create an environment where students feel free to explore literature without pressure. Encouraging choice, integrating technology, and fostering unstructured reading time can transform how future generations perceive reading—not as a means to an end but as a lifelong source of curiosity, connection, and joy.