I would blame the Big Tech social networks. My mom uses Instagram all the time and always claims she is getting “a lot of information”. I think that’s to blame. But also reading books isn’t something you force into people, it will make them hate it. It’s just a hobby, either you do it or you don’t. It makes people dumb? Ok. But you can’t force soul-searching (or any other reason to read a book) into someone.

I think that maybe events and other gatherings for readers would be good, people who are searching for something to fill their emptyness but don’t know what yet may get into books (or any other thing).