While literature students used to plough their way through multiple books every week, many now struggle to complete just one every three weeks a leading academic has warned, amid fears people are reading less and less.
Sir Jonathan Bate, who is a professor of English literature at the University of Oxford, believes increased use of devices and watching short media content has reduced our ability - and appetite - to delve into long reads.
Speaking to the BBC's Today programme, he said:'I've been teaching in British and American universities for 40 years and when I began inCambridgeyou could say to students, 'This week, it's Dickens, please read Great Expectations, David Copperfield and Bleak House.'
'Now, instead of three novels in a week, many students will struggle to get through one novel in three weeks.'
Miranda from the US sparked a huge BookTok debate last month after admitting she skips reading 'big paragraphs'
Another, @itsmjprice admitted that they'd ended up 'missing important information' and 'getting confused' after skimming over multiple paragraphs in a book they were reading
Academics have previously noticed students today seem increasingly ill-prepared to tear their way through a chunky tome, chiefly because they have not read regularly before coming to university, he added.
Sir Jonathan believes the problem could stem from people's attention spans lessening as people increasingly consume content from social media rather than books - but he also points to schools putting shorter books on the curriculum.
'The currently fashionable answer is that it's to do with the attrition of attention span due to smartphones, six-minute YouTube videos and instant TikTokdopamine hits.' he explained.
He also points to schools prescribing works that are shorter, such as John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men rather than the more challenging Grapes of Wrath.
But Sir Jonathan believes fewer people reading lengthy books could be more 'problematic' than we might realise.
He added: 'If you haven't got readers, what are writers going to do?
'The intensive, thoughtful, quiet reading of great books is good for mental health, it's very good for developing skills for concentration and critical thinking, and if that falls away that is problematic for society, for individuals.'
His comments come as social media influencers who enjoy reading have been openly admitting they 'skip'reading 'big paragraphs'.
Yana from California took to TikTok to review Six Of Crows by Leigh Bardugo, expressing her irritation that 'every page' contained 'so many words'
Miranda from the US, who is known as @probablyoffreading online, sparked huge debate after posting the now-deleted TikTokvideo last month.
BookTok is a subsection of TikTok that has been credited with 'making reading cool again' - but whether or not Gen Z genuinely enjoy the books they're promoting is a matter up for debate.
The book influencer, who has 328,000 followers and mainly reads romance and thriller books, said: 'If there's a paragraph this big, I'm skipping it, I'm skipping it.'
She added in the caption of the video that 'I can't be the only one' - and others on TikTok have even admitted that they 'only read the dialogue' in books.
Meanwhile@sydnie.reads revealed that when she starts finding a book 'boring' - referring to Emily Henry's popular novel Book Lovers - she will begin 'skipping half the paragraphs on a page'.
Beth, who posts under the username @thecool_table, even posted a guide on how to 'skip filler paragraphs when reading'.
Another, @itsmjpriceadmitted however that they'd ended up 'missing important information' and 'getting confused' after skimming over multiple paragraphs in a book they were reading.
In August, arow erupted on BookTok after an influencer complained the novel she was reading had 'too many words'.
This UK influencer on Book Tok admitted to only taking in the 'dialogue parts' when she reads
@sillylittlebookss there has to be someone who gets this #booktok #bookthoughts #bookopinions
♬ original sound - sillylittlebooks
Academic Sir Jonathan Bate (pictured with actor Sir Ian McKellen) made the observation about students' reading habits today
Yana from California took to TikTokto review Six Of Crows by Leigh Bardugo, expressing her irritation that 'every page' contained 'so many words'.
The influencer said she'd been recommended Young Adult fantasy Six Of Crows by some of her followers - but after reaching page 34, she was less than impressed.
Speaking to her 284,000 followers on a now-deleted video, she said: 'Can we talk about something real quick though? Can I just like, talk s*** for a second?
'Why the f*** is this book? First of all, the writing is so tiny. And why are the pages so filled with so many words? What the f***?
'I like pages that aren't filled with this many words. Like literally every page! Like look at this, are you f***ing kidding me?'
BookTok has however been largely credited in the resurgence of reading as a popular hobby among young people with more than 32 million posts.
