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'Postliterate' era dawns as internet attacks attention spans

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July 15, 2026

A quiet crisis is transforming human civilization: the rapid death of reading and the rise of a "postliterate" society. The average human attention span may now be mere seconds.

Recent studies show a staggering decline in reading books. On the other hand, there's a sharp increase in other media. People are actually now finding it much harder to focus on a book even if they wanted to. Rose Horowitch has written a viral article titled "The End of Reading is Here." She explored a phenomenon many are probably familiar with.

Tomi Oladipo Tomi Oladipo is a British-born Nigerian journalist based in Berlin.
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