In an age of cellphone addictions and doomscrolling, it can appear as though young people lack intelligence and are illiterate, but they have just adapted to modern media.
In the last few years, many adults have become concerned about Generation Z’s literacy rates. Countless headlines from Futurism, The Colgate Maroon and Essence say that Gen Z is reading less.
The people who are concerned about Gen Z’s reading often use statistics from standardized tests or rates of book ownership to illustrate their point. These statistics are designed to measure word recognition and frequency of reading. Such measurements are lacking, though, because the anxiety over Gen Z’s future is missing the big picture of media evolution.
The increase of online activity with social media and digital-based learning has created media that looks very different from 15 years ago. These days, Gen Z primarily uses digital resources to read, like Ebooks, audiobooks, articles and more. Because of that shift online, Gen Z’s literacy looks a little different from older generations, so measurements of literacy should be altered to better reflect the world that modern students live in.
For example, according to Crown Counseling, grade point averages have risen by 0.32 since 1990. While there is no study of the correlation between illiteracy and GPAs, it is generally accepted that people who cannot read will have a lower GPA, according to Novel Prep. While they are a fixed system in the grand scheme of things, GPAs are flexible because of their roots in teachers’ grading. Teachers can see their students’ effort better than a test score, so many adjust their grading to be more fair, which positively affects students’ GPAs, according to Forbes.
On the other hand, standardized tests like the SAT are more consistent with their scoring, meaning today’s teens are scored similarly to how teens from 2006 were scored, according to Prep Scholar. This lack of flexibility has caused a decrease in average SAT scores. 2025’s mean SAT score was 1029, according to College Board’s Newsroom. Meanwhile, 2015’s average score was 1490, according to The Washington Post. The SAT has been a regular measurement of literacy since the 1970s, according to the National Library of Medicine.
SAT scores are also decreasing because the test is no longer relevant to many students. Within the last decade, many universities and colleges have withdrawn the requirement to provide SAT scores in applications, according to Crimson Education. This has led many students to care less about their SAT scores, and have therefore added to the decline.
Despite the lowered SAT scores and disinterest in the test, students are not becoming illiterate.
Students are less likely to read a physical book these days, but that doesn’t mean they don’t read. To understand the evolution of literacy in younger generations, adults have to meet teens where they’re at.
While fewer teens read classic novels, many do read online stories like fan-fiction, short stories and listen to audiobooks. These forms of reading help to increase vocabulary recognition and improve literary device usage, according to the Medium.
The misconception that most of Gen Z is illiterate focuses only on the results of traditional literacy measurements. Despite this, most young adults and teens are more than capable of reading and comprehending — it just looks a little different. To calculate results that better indicate true illiteracy, the education system has to reform their literacy measurements to be more flexible as the way students read evolves.
As the SATs and other standardized tests become irrelevant to colleges, high schools should similarly remove their requirements for such tests. Instead, literacy should be measured by more personalized statistics like GPA and reading comprehension. These individual assessments of one’s literacy will be more accurate to each student as media evolves and students change.
