Is reading dying? Spoiler: it's complicated

阅读是否正在消亡?揭秘:这很复杂。

Round Table China

2026-08-25

18 分钟
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单集简介 ...

The obituaries for reading are written every week. Young people scroll past books, grades dip, professors mourn a lost age of deep thought. But the data refuses to cooperate with the gloom. In some corners of the world, reading is surging. Maybe the problem is not that reading is dying, but that we are looking for it in all the wrong places. On the show: Steve, Yushan & Yushun
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单集文稿 ...

  • Discussion keeps the world turning.

  • This is Roundtable.

  • You're listening to Roundtable.

  • I'm Steve Hatherly, today with Yushan and Yushun.

  • Coming up, everyone seems to agree that young people are reading less,

  • and the evidence seems at least a little bit clear.

  • Grades are down in certain places, frustrated professors are online leaving comments,

  • and critics, well, they say the end is near.

  • But the thing is, the global data does not fully support the panic.

  • In some places, reading is actually on the rise.

  • So are we looking at a real decline here or are we just measuring the wrong things?

  • We'll have a look at the numbers, the noise, and what happens when we redefine what reading actually is.

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  • I'll give that to you one more time.

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  • Recent data out of the United States paints a pretty grim picture.

  • Gen Z is reading less.