Harry Potter fans on X argue that they were reading entire books in a day as kids and compare it to Gen Alpha, who [allegedly] don’t read anything at all

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Olivia Arocena • Writer and Editor
Aug 15, 2026 8:30 AM EDT

Was Harry Potter really all that?

In the last couple of days, an old debate resurfaced about the growing number of people from younger generations (Specifically Alpha) who can't read a few lines in a row without getting distracted, let alone an entire book.

Harry Potter fans were quick to jump into the discussion, claiming that they used to read entire Harry Potter books in a day or finish the saga in a week, which, in my opinion, is an exaggeration, but aside from that, they express an issue that's 100% real.

Kids nowadays don't read and barely keep their faces away from their tablets, pretty much exactly like we do, because we've become just as hooked as they are. The only difference is that we had lovely childhoods away from the screens.

I can't even fathom how much your growing up can be affected by having a super-stimulant interactive screen available at all times; I struggle so many times to leave my phone and read a book, and I end up doing it out of sheer will power, and after that, the only reason I can stay reading for a long time is because I already built the habit long before.

But if you don't have the habit, and you have a very easy entertainment source to revert to, it's very difficult to pick it up from scratch.

Anyways, let's hear what they have to say.

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  • BODEGA PEPTIDES @bigsnugga saw a post from a zoomer saying they dont believe harry potter books were for children because children could never read books that large THAT'S SCARING ME
    via bigsnugga
  • lana @fibsitonlaer even to be so illiterate as to believe long = difficult is a terrifying state of affairs
    via bigsnugga
  • nukta cheen @langoortimes even at 13 i considered harry potter too lowbrow for me. grow up ...
    via langoortimes
  • tarnishedrwe @maidenlessduper Those are the easiest books to read xD i got hooked and read the first 4 in like 3 days lol when i could get time from school and the times i would mow yards for some bucks and i was 10 years old xD that was only some books amongst the hundreds if not thousands i read
    via bigsnugga
  • n_martley @martley_n I remember trying (and failing) to limit myself to reading only 100 pages a day because I didn't want to get through the Goblet of Fire too soon.
    via bigsnugga
  • Kawashiro Small Arms @NitoriSmallArms We ruined 2 entire generations ability to read, by replacing Phonics was 99% effective, with "just know what the word is because of the context, dips t." I'm not even kidding. That really happened, and it limited millions of Americans to a 4th grade reading level.
    via bigsnugga
  • genzatty @j414363 I hate when ppl confuse Gen Z with Gen Alpha....this is clearly so Gen Alpha coded I can't.....leave us zoomers out of this nonsense babe we were who these books were written for and who did the fanfic writing like what
    via bigsnugga
  • nobody read harry potter in a day yall a gd In lie Boze Herrington, Library Owl @SketchesbyBoze Not only were kids reading 700 and 800-page Harry Potter books in a single day, they were writing, without Al, fan-fiction that frequently surpassed the length of those books. The fact that people can no longer believe this happened only shows how steep our decline has been. x.com/bigsnugga/stat...
    via bigsnugga

  • Now, about the Harry Potter fans, I have my own opinion. Of course, it’s better to read anything than to not read at all, but let's face it, Harry Potter is not even close to being good literature. Besides, most Harry Potter fans only read that series and made it their entire personality. Don’t be mad at me; this is coming from someone whose first books were the Twilight saga. But now that I’m an adult, I know that it's absolutely slop, and slop before AI even existed.  Maybe it helps to pick up the habit of reading and expanding your concentration span, but that’s it.

    What will we do about younger generations? Will we accept that people won’t read anymore? And leave  that beautiful art form only to a select few?



     

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