Reading has been an important part of our daily living as it helps us gain a better understanding of our surroundings and discover new concepts; with that in mind, as technology paves the way for new inventions, methods of reading increases, which then compels more people to read in comparison to the people who read in the past. With the help of today’s electronic tools, reading literature is more accessible than ever before. The population of readers has increased and diversified and now consists of individuals who read using their smartphones, kindle, tablets, and all the like. Whether reading a cover letter, interpreting an instruction manual, or even reading a mathematical problem in paragraph form, reading is everywhere, which makes it an essential component of our lives. More and more old-fashioned items are constantly being replaced with efficient, modern gadgets, and the same trend is happening in the world of literature. Some may think that, since fewer and fewer people are buying printed books, less people are reading compared in the past. In reality, the fact that printed books are becoming less popular has nothing to do with the gradual change in the number of readers. The initially frightening thought of electronic devices taking over traditional books is undeniably true, but there is nothing to be afraid of. Just because e-books and all the similar devices have been becoming popular in such a small period of time, does not mean that it will completely become obsolete in the near future. Even Paul Bellow, the author of Hidden within Technology’s Empire, a Republic of Letters, has “…been warned that the novel was at the point of death, that like the walled city or the crossbow, it was a thing of the past.... I had grea... ... middle of paper ... ... valuable reading speed. As a matter of fact, pupils who have exceptionally great reading skills tend to, “…do well in school and pass exams than a student who is a weak reader,” (Shoebottom, P.). Every one of use will be affected in some way if we do not think of a way to incorporate reading in our lives. People should not presume that reading is being done by a fewer amount of people just because there has been less evidence of increased use of printed books compared to the more updated kind, the e-books. Even though there has been an increase in readers compared to the past, we should, at all times, keep caution and prevent the percentage from going down. We must constantly promote and publicize the importance of reading using technology at our sides, instead of fearing it for getting the attention of the readers of today compared to old-fashioned printed books.
The essay Staying Awake by Le Guin agrees with the NEA essays to a point, but she takes a different approach to present her essay, she also does not believe the reading decline to be as much of a gloom and doom situation as the NEA essays do, her thesis statement is “I want to question the assumption that books are on the way out. I think books are here to stay. It’s just not that many people ever did read them.’’(Le Guin p34) She says that readers have never been in the majority so why should that change now? (Le Guin p 34) Le Guin uses history as her background data she refers to the “century of the book,’’ (Le Guin p34) which was the peak of our reading abilities after that period of time the reading decline began. Being literate equals having control and separates the people who have power and control from those who do not. While the NEA essa...
In a world dominated by technology, reading novels has become dull. Instead of immersing into books, we choose to listen to Justin Bieber’s new songs and to scroll through Instagram posts. We have come to completely neglect the simple pleasures of flipping through pages and getting to finally finish a story. Sherman Alexie and Stephan King’s essays attempt to revive this interest in books that has long been lost. They remind us of the important role that reading plays in our daily lives. “The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me,” for instance, demonstrates how being literate saved the narrator from the oppressive nature of society. The author explains that even though he was capable of reading complex books at an astonishingly young
Reading has been going through a steady according to the article “Why Literature Matters”. Dana Gioia believes that the decline of reading in America will have a negative effect on society. He believes that there are many people that contributes to the decline of reading but mainly in the young adults ages 18-24. Dana also believes that with the steady decline of reading we can see a major change in our nation including, being less informed,active, and having the ability to have an independent mind. Dana Gioia states that “The most worrisome finding in the 2002 study [Survey of Public Participation in the Arts],however, is the declining percentage of Americans, especially young adults, reading literature.”
The theory is that when people’s egos are in the way, it causes them to make mistakes and their mistakes make a person realize that their ego affects them, in The Odyssey, by Homer, this dilemma is present for Odysseus. In the beginning of The Odyssey, Odysseus has a huge ego problem. Odysseus was once a generous and successful man, his success and acts of generosity cause his ego to get in the way, and he makes mistakes as a consequence, his ego gets in the way and has failures. When Odysseus realizes his failures, he turns back to his self again. Although, Odysseus was a kind and successful man, his success lead to ego problems which lead to failure and his failures transforms him to the successful Odysseus again.
The use of technology has introduced a new way of speaking and communication, which will, in time, alter the way literature is displayed on electronic mediums. Because of these setbacks, literary curriculum is supposedly being made easier than it has been in the past, to accommodate new students that can’t understand more complex texts as much as students in the past have been able to
Andrew Solomon has some valid arguments in his article, and he tries to persuade the readers through logos, pathos, and ethos. Solomon wants the readers to understand the importance of reading, and how its decline can be harmful to the nation. To reinforce his arguments, Solomon shares a variety of examples, for instance, he mentions that reading helps improve memory and concentration, and the decline of reading is causing mental “atrophy.” He also calls upon the readers to take some sort of action to raise reading rates and help the society. This can grant the readers a form of power and control over the crisis that will lead to an em...
Books are less common today than they were in the past. Fewer people read for pleasure now that technology is present. One study that shows that today, less than half of seventeen year olds read for pleasure more than once or twice a year. However, sixty-four percent of teens of the same age said they read at least once per week in the year 1984 (Alter). This only goes to show that technology is taking up more of people’s time for reading and other activities that were popular in the past. Overall, books are not as popular now as they once were.
What will most people be reading in a generation? The distractions every day people face in today 's society are affecting current levels of literacy. The direction we need to be pushed towards will be the top priority of the 21st-century educators. In her essay "Read with Purpose" by Cheryl Barnett-Bey, she proposes that the enjoyment of reading has been replaced by the Internet and television. Just before my teenage years I was introduced to new technology and became less interested in reading books. Throughout my own literacy journey I 've noticed our fast-paced society is slowly turning more and more people into being interested in activities than reading.
However, iIn spite of the current pre-eminence of e-books, it may be argued that they are not likely to replace print books anytime soon or possibly at all. Both formats have their advantages and drawbacks, which makes for one of them difficult to replace the other. Moreover, they serve differents needs and purposes. E-books are famous for their portability. Hundreds of e-books can be stored on a single device. Thus e-books don’t take shelving space and are convenient to take on travel, while even a few paper books are bulky and quite heavy to carry around. Numerous e-books are in open access, while paper books are not routinely available free of charge. E-books may be acquired and accessed immediately online, a feature I enjoy especially and treasure most: many a time I was able to buy and read an e-book at home within minutes of learning of its existence. Needless to say, e-books are considerably easier to cite and quote than print books, since the copy-paste feature spares us the trouble of retyping the quoted text. Another important advantage of digital books is their specialized software, which makes reading much easier: search and reference tools, changeable font size and day/night mode, dictionaries. Last but not least, e-books conserv...
Reading is one of the habits which everyone should develop. It can give the readers a lot of benefits such as wider vocabulary, enhancement of grammar and improved proficiency in their language. Reading materials are now being utilized in the internet world wherein everyone can see and read them.
Literature has changed over time. “The “death of print” has been much heralded over the past decade, precipitated by the rising accessibility of devices like tablets and smartphones that have made the electronic medium cheaper and more universal (1).” Literature has evolved
Nowadays, many people think reading is not necessary, since there are so many sources of information and types of entertainment, such as TV, cinema and the Internet. I believe they are wrong because reading is very beneficial in many ways.
Reading – we do it every day. In almost every aspect of our lives and often take it for granted. Reading is essential for human communication and increasing knowledge. However, because reading is so important even a small change can have a significantly large impact on our modern society. We are currently in a midst of a cultural revolution. In which the printed word is being transformed by the digital.
Print publishing has been credited for the long standing preservation of literary works of numerous authors, both past and present. This system of preserving the intellectual nuances of personages, customarily through books, is what affords for the realization by future generations of what the past looked like, in terms of the events and people that characterized it. In essence, books, according to Dixon-Fyle, link the idea or sentiments of authors to certain fundamental cultural and societal practices that enunciate the background of a particular civilization over time. However, the recent spate of technology that announced the entry of the digital age has cast a dingy decadence on the future of printed books, and the whole conventional practice of print publishing. The question that many academicians, librarians and other relevant stakeholders have constantly barraged themselves with is; will the digital age render print books obsolete?
Wise (2014), discusses that within the twenty first century in which the efficient completion of tasks is essential, speed reading is extremely advantageous. Not only does speed reading allow for the quicker acquisition of knowledge, it has shown to influence the brains functionality. Thus, one displays enhanced memory abilities, a higher level of attention and focus as well as a heightened problem solving ability (Wise, 2014). Despite the advantages of an increased reading speed, there is a large and significant disadvantage (Bell, 2001). The danger of developing a rapid reading rate, is that one’s level of comprehension is severely compromised. Therefore, a speed reader would not acquire an adequate amount of information when reading swiftly. It is possible that this disadvantage will have a detrimental effect on the precise completion of various academic and recreational tasks (Bell,