this post was submitted on 03 Sep 2026
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[–] jontree255@lemmy.world 118 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Yes it’s real. Apparently it’s not selling well because the venn diagram of “Mr Beast fans” and “people who read” are two circles that just barely touch.

[–] waltersf@bookwyr.me 22 points 1 day ago (1 children)

His target audience are minors, so that tracks.

[–] Thorry@feddit.org 12 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Do minors not read anymore? I read a lot as a kid.

My kids read constantly; but none of their friends do, AFAIK.

[–] BeatL@pawb.social -1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

they do. The "kids dont read anymore" come from i don't know where.

they read books, book tiktok is a thing. Youtuber as well. They read journal articles online or otherwise, they text each other so... they read same for social media. Audiobook is on the rise. In my book it count as reading a book. You are aware of each line of content of the book.

The most "kids don't read anymore" come from politicians that attribute the closure of library to young people instead of amazon, policies that does not protect or recognize librarians, etc.

[–] jerkface@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

What data are you using to come to this scarcely creditable claim? IM texts and street signs would be rather moving the goalpost, I think.

[–] sem@piefed.blahaj.zone 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The article i read about this yesterday said that kids read a huge amount of very short texts, but hate reading more than like 10-20 pages of text at a time.

Comic books are doing really well at scholastic because the text is broken up by images throughout.

[–] BeatL@pawb.social 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Well there is some of my own experience, some friends that are librarians, the wonderfull book "sois jeune et tais toi, une réponses a ceux qui critiquent la jeunesse" in english "be young and shut up! an answer to thoses that mock the youngs" from Salomé Saquee that goes above and beyond explaining that most stereotypes abount youngs are just that, stereotypes. https://world.edu/yes-young-people-are-still-reading-but-differently/

But i believe that reading is important, i believe you do too.

Do you have other sources? we could have a complementary vision of the world ;) Or both learn something ;p

[–] sem@piefed.blahaj.zone 1 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago) (1 children)

Yeah! I went back and found the link posted on IRC yesterday. See what you think!

https://www.the74million.org/article/many-young-adults-barely-literate-yet-earned-a-high-school-diploma/

EDIT: I liked this one even better: https://www.the74million.org/article/why-are-so-few-kids-reading-for-pleasure/

Also, if you are interested in reading theory, i found this study quite interesting as well, though it is focused on approaching difficult texts in an academic setting

https://www.scribd.com/document/868947219/project-muse-922346

Last but certainly not least, this critique of the "whole language" method of teaching reading, in the context of other methods of reading instruction, was eye opening for me. Could easily slip into pearl-clutching territory, but i think it was well supported throughout.

https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-education/the-rise-and-fall-of-vibes-based-literacy EDIT: This is not the article i remember reading -- that one was much more dramatic and fun. But it covers much of the same content.

I can't wait to read your reference as well and discuss it hopefully, in the theme of both learning something.

[–] BeatL@pawb.social 2 points 11 hours ago

First of all, Thanks a lot for explaining and posting links ! Obviously i was focused into france and stupidly made a general thing. And some of it does apply to france and alike. I need to nuance my point.

But i am like WTF america ? I knew the poverty is on the rise and the education is not as good as other countries. (you absolutely have very very very good school but for the 0.1% only. For the majority of the population, they get by with what they can get and some schools are better then other. Feel free to shit on me on that, it is nothing more than an accumulation of little thing and i hope for nothing more to be wrong)

For example, in belgium, whatever school you graduate from, they are equivalent. You can acces university. A year of university cost less than a 1000€. If you are from a poor family, you can ask to pay lower and/or have funds to help your children learn. Plus every diploma you got should be valid in the whole EU (is not 100% true yet) (well right wing politicians are like "this cost too much" and "our kids are stupider and stupider, lets privatize schools" ... maybe it will not be so good anymore)

Sorry, i disgress. Ok poverty is on the rise you read less, housing crisis make people anxious, anxious peoples do not stop to read a long book, Covid confinement basicly put everyone in prison for some years, yeah it has traumatic effect including trouble to focus and reading. Peoples have more and more stuff to do, they do not have time to read anymore, they overburdened themself (free fuck the grindset) They are anxious, burdened, poor and stressed, tiktok offer an easy, no stress, passive way to distract yourself from the world. Fucking hell.

A lot of it is true too for france and europe and while wtf i didn't knew it was so bad for americans.We are aimed in sorta the same direction. But thinks are not that bad yet. Right wing politicians use reading stats as "public school do not make young kids reads a lot of book, it is a failure of a system make it private" and is based on a lot of flimsy stupids claims that we have to debunk. like :

  • once you achieved a basic level of literacy (you can read on your own a big book) and know how to resume and select relevant information (those are tested skill) well reading more does not significantly improve anything.
  • The education crisis in lots of skils like math, chemistry, french, history and skills like critical thinking, empathy, understanding, etc is more linked to the size of class, the lack of funding for school, the desperate state of our scholing infrastructure, the teachers that very badly paid, etc It is more of an issue of the system and the mean than just reading. But again, put such system in question like "why learning basic and absolutely necessary skills to people should be subject to capitalist competition" ? Why would that make any sense ?

Thanks for sharing.

[–] Zarobi@aussie.zone 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Should have released a Mr. Beast audiobook then instead of a bookbook; narrated by da beast himself, now streaming on TikTok in 490 parts. That would have sold much better. Market research.

[–] waltersf@bookwyr.me 2 points 1 day ago

iirc, they have a podcast for this exact reason.