India, Aug. 5 -- (By Rachel Noorda and Kathi Inman Berens for The Conversation) A trove of recent articles bemoan the collapse in recreational reading among younger Americans, with COVID-related reading declines, artificial intelligence and social media often described as causes.

But as the authors of "How Gen Z Discover and Consume Books," we think many claims about Gen Z's reading behaviors miss the mark.

Some long-standing, influential studies aren't designed to capture how Gen Z often reads: multimodally - bouncing between print, e-book and audiobook for the same book - and on web platforms such as Wattpad, Webtoon, Kindle Unlimited, DC Universe Infinite and Marvel Comics online.

In fact, according to our 2025 data, a growing propo...