The Death of Deep Reading: How the internet is turning our brains to mush

The good old days when you could sit down with a book, lose yourself in its pages and actually remember what you read. Now? You open an article, skim the first few sentences, get distracted by a notification, and — oh look, a cat video!

Sound familiar? You’re not alone.

The internet isn’t just changing how we read — it’s changing how we think. Our brains, once wired for deep, focused reading, are now operating in TikTok mode: short bursts, constant scrolling and zero patience for complexity. We’re not reading; we’re skimming, swiping, and speed-running information like it’s a video game. The worst part? We don’t even realize it’s happening.

Attention Span? Never Heard of It

Let’s be real: when was the last time you read a long article without skipping ahead? If you’re still here, congratulations — you’re one of the few.

A 2023 study found that the average person spends only 26 seconds on a webpage before moving on. Twenty-six seconds! That’s barely enough time to read a paragraph. Instead, we scan headlines, pick out a few keywords and call it a day. It’s like trying to understand a novel by reading every tenth page.

It’s not just casual reading. College professors report that students struggle to get through assigned readings. Even journalists say readers now demand shorter, punchier articles because anything beyond 500 words feels like a commitment.

From Shakespeare to Short-form chaos

Books? Who’s got the time? We’ve traded War and Peace for Wikipedia summaries, replaced classic literature with viral threads, and convinced ourselves that watching a 60-second TikTok breakdown is the same as reading the original text. Spoiler: it’s not.

Sure, social media has made information more accessible but at what cost? Our brains are getting used to rapid-fire content, and it’s making deep reading feel like a chore. The result? We struggle with complex ideas, lose patience with anything that isn’t immediately entertaining, and expect everything to be digestible in under a minute.

The Dangerous Side

This isn’t just about missing out on good books. Deep reading helps us think critically, understand nuance and process information in a meaningful way. Without it, we become easier to manipulate, more susceptible to misinformation and less capable of independent thought.

Case in point: a 2018 MIT study found that fake news spreads six times faster than real news. Why? Because people don’t read past the headlines. The internet encourages surface-level engagement: quick reactions, instant opinions, zero depth. When we stop questioning what we read, we become passive consumers of whatever information is thrown our way.

Can we save our brains?

Here’s the hard truth: the internet isn’t going anywhere, and neither is our addiction to instant gratification. But we can fight back.

🚀 Read books, not just summaries. Your brain needs full-length stories, not just bite-sized content.
🚀 Commit to uninterrupted reading. No phones, no distractions.
🚀 Slow down. Skimming is a habit, but so is deep reading. Train your brain to focus again.

This isn’t just about reading — it’s about thinking. In a world designed to keep us distracted, reclaiming our focus might just be the most radical thing we can do.