A new article in The Atlantic argues that we may be entering a “post-literate” era, where deep reading is becoming less common and sustained attention is increasingly difficult to maintain. Whether or not you agree with every conclusion, it raises an important question for educators:
What role will generative AI play in the future of reading and language development?
AI has tremendous potential to improve learning. It can explain difficult passages, adapt content to different reading levels, provide instant feedback, expand vocabulary, and help students practice writing more effectively than ever before.
However, there is another side to the conversation.
Educational psychologists have long discussed cognitive offloading: the process of relying on external tools to perform mental work that we once completed ourselves. We already use calculators for arithmetic and GPS for navigation. Now, generative AI can summarize chapters, interpret literature, draft essays, and even answer comprehension questions.
The critical question is not whether AI will affect reading and language skills.
It is how we choose to use it.
When AI supplements thinking, it can accelerate learning.
When AI replaces thinking, students may lose opportunities to develop the deep reading, analysis, inference, and writing skills that standardized language assessments are designed to measure.
As educators, our challenge is no longer deciding whether students should use AI. That question has largely been answered. Our responsibility is designing learning experiences where AI serves as a cognitive partner rather than a cognitive substitute.
The future of literacy may depend less on artificial intelligence itself and more on the choices we make about integrating it into education.
I’d love to hear how other educators, researchers, and instructional designers are approaching this balance.
Robert Foreman
Adjunct Faculty | AI & Business Analytics Education
Avila University Arizona
📧 robert.foreman@avila.edu
Source: The Atlantic, “The End of Reading Is Here.”
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/2026/08/reading-crisis-postliterate-age/687618/