The change did not look like a crisis at first.
A teenager got a phone. He still had books at home. He still knew the stories he once loved. His Harry Potter collection was still there, holding the memory of a quieter kind of childhood.
Then, slowly, the phone began to take more space.
Reuters reported in June 2026 that Valentina Muraglie, a board member of Italy’s association of large families, saw this change in her son Antonio after he got a phone at 16. She said the books began to disappear “little by little,” and within a few years he had stopped reading altogether.
This is not the kind of story that makes headlines because of one sudden event. There is no single night when everything changed. No dramatic scene at the dinner table. No clear moment when a parent could say, “This is when reading was lost.”
That is exactly why many parents may recognize it.
In many homes, reading does not disappear all at once. It fades.
A book stays beside the bed, unopened. A child reads a few pages, then checks a notification. A teenager says they are too tired to read, but scrolls for another hour. A library book is renewed, then returned unfinished. The bookshelf remains in the room, but the phone becomes the thing the child reaches for first.
The concern is not only that children are using phones. The deeper concern is what the phone may be replacing.
When Books Lose the Competition
Parents often talk about screen time as a number.
Thirty minutes. Two hours. Four hours. Too much.
But the more useful question may be different: what did the screen push out?
Did it push out sleep? Outdoor play? Family conversation? Homework focus? Boredom? Prayer? Quiet? Reading?
The American Academy of Pediatrics uses a helpful term for this in its 5 Cs of Media Use: “Crowding Out.” The AAP says families should ask whether media is crowding out things their family cares about, including sleep, relationships, schoolwork, physical activity and other healthy routines.
For reading, that question matters.
Books need a certain kind of attention. A child has to stay with a sentence, remember a character, follow a plot, imagine a place, and sit with silence. Scrolling asks for something different. It offers a new post, a new video, a new joke, a new message, a new feeling every few seconds.
A child may not hate books.
The phone may simply become easier.
And easy things win many small battles.
The Data Behind the Worry
The concern about reading and attention is not only personal.
Pew Research Center reported in 2024 that nearly half of U.S. teens said they were online “almost constantly,” up from 24% a decade earlier. Pew also reported that 96% of teens said they used the internet daily.
In a separate 2025 survey, Pew found that 45% of teens said they spend too much time on social media, up from 36% in 2022 and 27% in 2023.
Common Sense Media’s 2023 report, “Constant Companion,” studied the smartphone use of 200 young people ages 11 to 17. The report found that participants received a median of 237 notifications on a typical day. About one-quarter of those notifications arrived during the school day, and 5% arrived at night.
That kind of interruption makes deep reading harder to protect.
Reading data also tells a serious story. The National Assessment of Educational Progress, known as the Nation’s Report Card, reported that only 14% of 13-year-olds in 2023 said they read for fun almost every day. That was down from 17% in 2020 and 27% in 2012.
NAEP also reported that the share of 13-year-olds who read for fun almost every day was lower in 2023 than in all previous assessment years.
These numbers do not prove that phones alone caused the decline in reading. Reading habits are shaped by schools, family routines, libraries, poverty, language access, learning differences, sleep, stress and many other factors.
But they do show that families are trying to protect reading in a much louder world.
Reading Is More Than Schoolwork
Parents often think of reading mainly as an academic skill.
Will my child pass the test?
Will they understand the textbook?
Will they get better grades?
Those questions matter. But reading is also more than school performance.
Reading builds imagination. It stretches attention. It helps children sit with another person’s thoughts. It gives them language for feelings they may not yet know how to explain. It teaches patience in a world that rewards speed.
A child who reads learns that not every answer comes quickly.
That is different from scrolling.
Scrolling is not always useless. A teenager can learn from short videos. A child can discover books through social media. Some young readers find joy through book review videos, library accounts, fan communities and online reading challenges.
The issue is not whether every screen is bad and every book is good. That is too simple.
The issue is balance.
If a phone helps a child discover a book, that can be good. If the phone replaces the book every night, parents should pay attention.
Why Teenagers Drift Away From Books
Parents often ask why a child who used to read suddenly stops.
Sometimes the answer is simple: the phone is more exciting.
But there are other reasons too.
Teenagers are busy. Schoolwork becomes harder. Sports, jobs, family duties and social pressure take time. Some children struggle with reading and avoid it because it feels embarrassing. Some never found books that speak to their interests. Some associate reading only with tests, assignments and pressure.
Then the phone arrives.
It offers quick relief. Quick entertainment. Quick connection. Quick escape.
A book asks for effort at the beginning before it gives its reward. A feed gives the reward first.
That does not mean teenagers are lazy. It means books are competing with platforms designed to capture attention.
Parents should not simply say, “Read more.”
They may need to rebuild the conditions that make reading possible.
How Parents Can Protect Reading Without Starting a Fight
A parent cannot force a teenager to love books by turning reading into punishment.
“Give me your phone and read for an hour” may work once. It will not build a reading life.
A better approach is to make reading easier to return to.
Keep books visible. Put them near beds, sofas, cars, backpacks and breakfast tables. A book hidden on a shelf has less chance against a phone in the hand.
Protect one phone-free time. It could be 20 minutes before bed, Sunday morning, after dinner or a quiet weekend hour. The goal is not to create a perfect reading family overnight. The goal is to create one protected space where attention can settle.
Let the child choose. A graphic novel, sports biography, fantasy series, mystery, poetry, manga, history book, cookbook or audiobook can all be doors back into reading.
Do not shame easy reading. A child who returns through an easy book may later reach for a harder one. The first goal is to rebuild the habit.
Read near them. Teenagers may not want to be read to, but they still notice what adults do. If every adult scrolls at night, the child learns that scrolling is the family culture.
Talk about books without turning it into a quiz. Ask what surprised them, what character annoyed them, or what part felt real. Avoid making every book conversation feel like school.
Use the phone as a bridge, not the destination. Library apps, audiobooks, e-books, author interviews and book recommendation videos can help if they lead back to longer attention.
What Schools and Communities Can Do
This is not only a family issue.
Schools, libraries, community centers, faith groups and after-school programs can help make reading visible again.
Schools can protect silent reading time instead of treating it as a leftover activity. Libraries can host teen book clubs that feel social rather than forced. Community groups can organize book swaps, family reading nights and “read with your child” challenges. Coaches, mentors and local leaders can talk about what they read, not only what they do.
Children need to see reading as part of real life, not only school life.
Governments are also starting to talk about reading and screens together. Reuters reported in April 2026 that French President Emmanuel Macron urged high school students to switch off their phones and read, while promoting one “no screens day” per month and a social media ban for children under 15.
Parents may disagree on whether bans are the answer. But the concern behind the message is familiar: young people need time away from screens to think, read and live offline.
If Reading Has Already Disappeared
Some parents may read Valentina Muraglie’s story and feel a quiet sadness.
My child used to read.
My child used to carry books.
My child used to get lost in stories.
Now they only scroll.
But it may not be too late.
Reading can return slowly, the same way it disappeared slowly.
It may return through an audiobook in the car. A novel connected to a movie. A sports memoir. A book a friend recommends. A parent reading quietly nearby. A teacher who gives the right book at the right moment. A library visit that does not feel like pressure. A phone-free night that begins with complaints and ends with a few pages.
Parents should not treat reading as a lost battle. They should treat it as a relationship that needs repair.
A teenager may not become the same reader they were at 10. That is normal. But they can still become a reader again.
The Bigger Lesson
Valentina Muraglie’s story is not only about one family in Italy. It points to a question many families now face:
What parts of childhood are being crowded out without us noticing?
Sometimes the answer is reading.
Sometimes it is sleep.
Sometimes it is boredom.
Sometimes it is conversation.
Sometimes it is the quiet time children need to know themselves.
For 3A1Z Stories, this is where the 5 Cs become more than a framework. “Crowding Out” belongs in every family conversation about phones.
The goal is not to raise children who never scroll. That is not realistic.
The goal is to raise children who still know how to stop.
To put the phone down.
To sit with a book.
To stay with a thought.
To enter a story that does not disappear after a few seconds.
In the age of AI and social media, protecting reading is not only about literacy. It is about protecting attention, imagination, patience and the inner space children need to grow.
Quick Parent Guide: How to Bring Reading Back
Start with 15 to 20 minutes of phone-free reading time.
Keep books visible around the home.
Let children choose what they read.
Include graphic novels, audiobooks, manga, magazines, biographies and fiction.
Avoid shaming easy books.
Remove phones from bedrooms at night.
Read near your child, even if you are not reading the same book.
Use library apps and audiobooks as bridges, not replacements.
Ask gentle questions, not school-style questions.
Connect books to your child’s interests.
Make reading social through friends, libraries, family or clubs.
Notice what screens are crowding out and try to crowd reading back in.
Source-Backed Sidebar: What the Evidence Shows
Reuters reported in June 2026 that Valentina Muraglie, a board member of Italy’s association of large families, said her son Antonio gradually replaced reading with scrolling after getting a phone at 16.
Pew Research Center reported in 2024 that nearly half of U.S. teens said they were online almost constantly, up from 24% a decade earlier.
Pew reported in 2025 that 45% of teens said they spend too much time on social media, up from 36% in 2022 and 27% in 2023.
Common Sense Media’s 2023 report, “Constant Companion,” found that young people ages 11 to 17 received a median of 237 phone notifications on a typical day.
NAEP reported that only 14% of 13-year-olds in 2023 said they read for fun almost every day, down from 27% in 2012.
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends the 5 Cs of Media Use: Child, Content, Calm, Crowding Out and Communication.
