We’ve got to write an editorial on the decline in readership among the youth of today and I’m struggling to describe what the aliterate world of the future may look like. What will society be like if fewer and fewer people read books or anything longer than a page? Will society get better or worse? Pick a side and support your argument. If you pick the bad side, explain what can be done to change the course of humanity.
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Although I think it is important that people to read and be okay with reading more of a page, I unfortunately recognize that our world will only continue to decline in readership. Today if I want something read to me that does not have to do with school I ask my phone to read it to me, it is lazy I is also efficient, I can “read†what I need to read and also get something else done at the same time. I think society will be better not because of the non reading specifically but because everything will be the same. People will be able to rely on the fact that they won’t have to actually read things. I don’t think anything can be done to stop something this inevitable and the reason it is inevitable is because the technology is so advanced, why would someone choose to actually sit down and read the book when they could pick convenience and listen to the audiobook on their way to work. I don’t think it is as negative as people make it seem or just my generations fault, everyone looks at the new adults for making everything “lazier†but my generation did not invent technology nor are we the only ones who use it!
I love having my computer read to me. I usually use it for papers or reports that I write, simply to catch those grammatical errors that I would read differently in my head, but I know my kids schools use this for students who have trouble reading. I can see it as a time saver. Being able to listen to what you are needing to read while you are working on something else.
I think technology has made it easier for all generations to be ‘lazier’. I do see it more of an issue in the newer generations who are being raised with the higher technology. But I guess I could see it as the new way of the world, except for the downfalls it has on all generations.
I love how you pointed out that this generation is blamed and criticized for the over-use of technology and “laziness” because we aren’t even the ones who created it, they did!!
In all honesty, I think society will become less knowledgeable in many areas of history and literature, if not other things if they stop reading books. In my experience, children (as an example) who don’t read or who don’t read very often have smaller attention spans, have less intelligent conversations with peers and adults and are less capable writers. These are only some of the reasons but already they are enough to show us that not reading enough or often can be unfortunate for the individual. I’ve grown up in my home reading all sorts of books along with some of my siblings and I have seen a large difference in those who read and those who don’t. Everyone should be able to read and should read often. A society that doesn’t read will continually get worse in a world where books and reading are a hefty part of our history and culture. If everyone devoted 30 minutes a day to reading something longer then a page, preferably a book, I believe we would have a more intelligent society. There are all sorts of ideas and mistakes we can learn from through books. We can learn new words and even learn more about how we came into being. 30 minutes a day is nothing compared to how much time people waste being on their phone. Instead of looking at your phone, open a book and learn something worth learning about.
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Society will progressively get worse if the literate world of the future declines. I have 5 children ranging from 7 to 16. Of these, 2 enjoy reading and 2 wouldn’t do it if you gave them a hundred dollars per book, but while my oldest doesn’t like it, she will do it because she cares about her grades. My two who enjoy reading, my soon to be a 14 year old daughter and my 7 year old son. They enjoy reading all types of books. I have gotten them ereaders (Kindles) and they still prefer the hard books. With their joy in reading, they are well above their grade level. My oldest daughter in high school is on par and a straight A student while her two brothers 13 and 14 are a C average and wouldn’t pick up a book to save their lives.
Just by this alone, it shows me the youth are decline in their literacy. And I know it isn’t just them. Talking with their teachers during parent teacher conference it’s the society we live in. Everything is short-phrased. I know has turned to IK, I don’t know is IDK. They read shorthand so much that I don’t feel that their brains have the capacity to read the larger words which in turn means less of an education that they are getting. Not at any fault of their teachers and sometimes not to their parents. It is the world that they are growing up in versus where we as their parents were when you had to read everything.
My husband for example reads everything. News, magazines, and books. He will read a book in a day if he doesn’t have anything else going on. At any time you can have a conversation with him on what’s going on in the world, and he knows. For me, I am still in school but it doesn’t stop there. For my work, I am constantly in trainings where I have to read pages of material before hand. But we are those 90s babies (so I call us 90 babies, we grew up in the ’90s but born mid-late 80s). We graduated in 2003 and cell phones came out towards the end of our high school years. Our communication wasn’t tainted by the social media/texting slang.
Nowadays, its considered reading if you scroll through your instagram/facebook and read the posts. I fear the future years where our generations will be. While I know technology was on the rise, I didn’t foresee our future of communication and literacy to decrease like this.
I love to see your opinion on this because we were born in different times so our opinions are based off of different things. I agree that society has become lazier due to technology and it is honestly sad. Many people in my age group because we were born into the uprise of technology, did not have a childhood. Fortunately for me my mom did not allow me to have a phone or iPad until I was old enough to buy one myself so I got to see it from both sides. Thank you for really diving deep into this question and adding so much to the discussion!
I am almost 29, and I use short-phrased terms when texting between friends and family such as the ones you listed. I also know how to form full sentences though when needed. So, I don’t think it is necessarily fair to assume that their brains don’t have the capacity to read larger words. I understand where you’re coming from though, I do. I am not trying to start an argument here, just something I had to point out.
It’s so true. Kids who read act more intelligent than those who don’t read. Also, their writing and overall communication skills are much better. I don’t see this kind of intelligence from kids glued to their phones all the time. I see this kind of intelligence from kids and just people in general who read tangible books.
Chantel,
The examples you gave us of your children, I feel like, are so similar to many other kids in their age groups. I feel like children either love to read or don’t. In this day and age, most children are comfortable with technology and all it has to offer because that’s what they grew up with. The older generations grew up with actual books and landline telephones, where as the younger generation grew up with cell phones, laptops, and wifi.
It seems like there has been a gradual change over the years, heading towards an aliterate world. While a world where people don’t read books is almost unimaginable to us now, it may eventually become a reality. According to the 2018 American Time Use Survey, the amount of Americans who read for pleasure has dropped 30% since 2004. In my opinion, reading opens worlds to us, that we wouldn’t be able to experience otherwise. Beyond that, no matter how descriptive the words are that an author uses, our brain gets to fill in some details. So, reading fosters creativity. Being able to immerse myself in a book is a mental vacation that I don’t get through other outlets. An aliterate world will be less creative. I would venture to guess if one form of expression, the written word, suffers then other forms of personal expression will suffer as well. Will people in an aliterate world also begin to shun dance, or photography, or traditional forms of visual art as well? New forms of technology-based art are popping up and rightfully celebrated, but there is still value in writing and story-telling through the written word. I don’t have a solution to this problem though. I wish I could think of a meaningful, world-wide movement that would save books. But for now, I plan to continue to emphasize the importance of reading to my children, and my spouse and myself. And maybe, if we all just focused on our own families, it would be enough to change that tide.
Ingraham, Christopher. “Leisure reading in the U.S. is at an all-time low.†Washington Post, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2018/06/29/leisure-reading-in-the-u-s-is-at-an-all-time-low/.
I agree with your statement, “An aliterate world will be less creative.” I think that reading is so important, especially when it comes to children. I think when kids listen to stories it truly makes their minds wonder and sparks something in them.
I love this! I so much agree that the future will be less creative without reading, reading allows your ind to travel wherever the book does. I am somebody who does not particularly enjoy all reading. However I love certain books because of how magical the experience of reading the book is. I will also stress the importance of reading when I have kids because I can not even imagine how the world will be if reading isn’t requirement in school and other settings. Thank you for your views on this question!
Reading is a fantastic thing in my opinion because its good for your brain and helps me even learn a larger vocabulary. This is why I don’t like all the audiobooks and quick methods of reading a book because it takes out a lot of the benefits. But, if I’m reading anything for school, I 100% use an audiobook because I find myself wanting to get multiple things done at once. I’m not going to say that this method is bad because as long as the person is able to retain the information and get the work done, it’s quite the opposite of lazy. Reading is very beneficial for a person’s brain, but I know there are lots of other brain-building exercises out there. Society is not strictly going down hill because people are shying away from common books, it’s just a sign of evolving and growing into the age of technology. In this case, I feel that schools should seek other ways of curriculum outside of reading boring textbooks; so perhaps, this new shift could be towards something more creative and intuitive for the upcoming generation.
I’m not really sure how to feel about this one. On one hand, I do think that people reading less and less will only begin to decline our literacy as each generation passes. On the flip side of that, we know that technology is so advanced, you can literally do everything on your phone, computer, tablet, etc. I don’t think listening to audiobooks makes anyone lazy, in a sense. I, for one, enjoy audiobooks more than I do actually reading them. I enjoy them because I feel as if, I can picture the scenes in my head better than I can actually reading them. If that makes any sense at all? I don’t think I am lazy because of this, and I am definitely not illiterate. I use acronyms for sayings in texts with friends and family, but I know when to switch and write full sentences when needed. If anything technology has helped me become a much more knowledgable person, and a better student. Sometimes, I will even highlight what is on my screen and have it read to me, because I process information better this way. So, I might have just contradicted what I said in the beginning, and I think I have found the side sway to most.
In society today, fewer people are already starting to read fewer books, and I am guilty of not reading enough books myself. Although books have been transformed from paper books to e-readers, I still notice that people do not read as much as they should, including me. I believe I do not read physical books because it is easier for me to read on my phone – which I have with me 24/7. However, I am guilty of not even using my phone to use all of the apps that can be downloaded to read books. Although I would say I do not ever read, because I tend to read off of social media and for school. I would say people who are teens to early adulthood are in the same position as me. One website/app that I do tend to use is Audiobooks, along with most of my classmates. People may say that this is the easy way out, but for me, I always comprehend what is being said better than if I read it myself. Because having physical books have declined, this has opened people’s views on literacy. As someone who is an Elementary Education teacher, I believe it is important for young children to read off of physical books so they can have a guide of how reading should be done. That being said, I have been in classrooms where they are reading off an iPad or the iPad is reading to them. I have seen these students become literate from using those iPads. And in reality, our world is going to become based on technology, so in the long run, I believe hard copy books will disappear and books will be read on some sort of technology device.
I believe as there are fewer readerships among people, we as a community are losing a part of our culture and history. Books are many things; they are records of our past that generations can learn from. If our young people do not read, then they cannot learn about the rich histories their ancestors have lived before them. They cannot learn about the hardships and the reasons our country became what it is if they do not seek the answers from within the pages of a book. As the textbook mentioned, “ books are windows to our pastâ€(Baran, 55). With books, we can learn about not only our own culture but others too. We become uneducated about the world around us without leaning from books. In recent times, technology has helped bring books to more people by introducing E-books. With E-readers and E-books, books are at our fingertips and can be read aloud to those who need assistance. According to the textbook, 42% of college students and 33% of high-school students do not read books after graduation (Baran, 59). This decline in readership is a loss for not only these people but for our community as a whole. I do realize that we have busy lives and that reading books take time. However, with technology, we can have books read aloud to receive the information we need. I fear that the decline in aliteracy will continue due to the introduction of technology and with how busy people’s lives have become in today’s society.
This is a good question yet I believe that reading is going to stay with us no matter what. Think of all those subtitles on foreign movies or games that you have to play quietly so you can get a little more time in. School textbooks still are out there I have bought a couple this year. Plus if it does die out there will be a class on translating it like the hyrolglifics of Egypt and the Latin of old. We just have more knowledge to reference from now and it comes down to what way works for you the best to get information across and to sink in. The lack of wanting to get into books I think is groomed at a young age when borish books are forced on you and have no relevance in present-day life. The curiosity and wonderment in adolescence are almost snuffed out by outdated teaching practices that do not give the kids proper guidance and excitement in learning new things. However, like most knowledge out there in books though it is subjectional by the one who wrote it and how the information comes across to you when you read it. How many times have you ever read to far into something or totally was on a different page? I think it is best to surf through all of the vast wisdom out there and to always question everything.
Reading expands our knowledge and our intelligence so it is absolutely important that people read just a bit more than just a page, here and there. I say this from my own personal experience. I struggled in school to the point that I had to receive special intervention in the second grade for my speech, reading, and writing. Suffering in these areas led to problems in other areas, but it was when I learned to read that I took off academically. I was finally able to write and spell. I was able to understand my homework and math. Reading isn’t just beneficial for reading purposes, it helps us in communication and understanding things. My older sister suffers from learning disabilities and has always been a horrible speller. She changed that herself by making herself read; the more she read, the more words she memorized and began to understand. She is now excellent in her spelling abilities.
Academics aside, reading is also a great way to cope and relax. When you find a genre that you enjoy, reading can be exciting and you find yourself immersed into another world. Growing up in a troubled household and a troubled childhood, reading became my escape, my happy place. When life gets to be too hard and I feel stressed, I sit down and read. Even if it’s just a chapter, it helps me to reset myself and continue pushing forward.
To me, this seems like a two sided question. Yes, it has become popular for people to mostly read short articles and read less of your “novel” length books. Is this a bad thing? I personally read mostly scientific journals which are one to twenty page entries that provide me with an adequate amount of information on the topic I am interested in. I do enjoy reading books but am only drawn to non fiction. If anyone reads a non fiction book cover to cover that is quite impressive. Generally I extrapolate any information pertinent to my current interest and move on from there. I do not think this makes me alliterate but I can see that I do not fall into the category of book lover. It is very important for people to read and have adequate reading comprehension but I have never experienced a time where reading for pleasure would have benefitted me more greatly than reading for information.
It is hard for me to envision a society that does not read books. The premise of a wholly alliterate society seems inconceivable. This quote best summarizes the self-inflicted injustice created by such a scenario which would leave us in a world where, “we are powerless when it comes to… [the] worst violation: that of not reading… books. For that crime, a person pays with his whole life; if the offender is a nation, it pays with its history†(Brodsky, 1987).
I have great difficulty conceptualizing a completely alliterate world. My head is filled with questions. Does this mean that we actually would not have books? Why would we have them if no one read them? Would we have laws? Would there be a constitution? A bible? What about the everyday services on which we depend, like healthcare and education; Would either exist? What would the quality be? Would the average human lifespan be what it is today? What about the world’s population? How would we get our news? Would there be television, computers, or Internet? I feel as though the answers to many of these questions is no.
I have always loved reading. When I found a book I loved, I could finish it in a matter of days and I couldn’t put it down. I see a lot of news and teachers talking about the reading struggle of today’s youth and it is hard to relate to, but I can understand. There is so much technology available now, why would someone want to pick up a book and read it for themselves? There are apps that read the book for you, gaming is more important in free time to most kids or watching shows, etc.
Right now I am in a writing literacy class and we are talking about this very issue. The author talks about “making time for reading.” In her class, every morning, she has the kids read for 15 minutes independently with their book of choice and her students have great testing scores. She makes the time for the kids to read. By doing this, the kids get in the habit of making time to read and they do this for themselves in their free time outside of school eventually as well.
Without reading, people are unable to comprehend, expand their knowledge, write, apply for jobs, read instructions for daily living and a number of other things. Reading is a fundamental part of life. It even helps with communication skills between others. I believe the world would definitely head in a downward spiral with less reading involved in people’s lives.
I grew up an avid reader. I read hundreds of books by the time I entered high school, but something changed partway through my freshman year. I got a smartphone. Suddenly, I found that I wasn’t as interested in reading as I had once been, and just about the only books I read were for my classes. I strongly believe that reading helped me, especially with vocabulary and writing. I was placed in accelerated and honors classes throughout grade school, middle school, and high school; something that I greatly attribute to my past reading. Honestly, in the grand scheme of things, a lack of reading won’t directly harm society in our technological age. However, I want to bring up a very important point. As an engineering major, I have seen many, many online resources that myself and several other people use for our classes. Yes, they are extremely convenient, but in using those resources, do we really learn the material as well as an engineering major would have been forced to in the pre-internet era? Now, this could be a completely irrelevant point as these same resources are available to practicing engineers as well, but if there is ever a catastrophic failure in our data systems, resulting in the loss of our stored knowledge, then books are all that will remain of that knowledge. I guess the point I’m getting at is this: in order to prevent a large scale loss in human knowledge due to unforeseen circumstances, reading should still be emphasized in today’s society. That’s not to say that today’s society can’t read, everyone here is reading these posts. But our reliance on technology is borderline catastrophic, especially if you consider that a simple EMP (electro-magnetic pulse) could wipe an entire databank forever.
I think that reading books was essential for my learning. Growing up, I was an avid reader and went through books almost every week. This taught me how to speed read, and helped me immensely with writing and vocabulary. But reading this way isn’t beneficial for everyone. Most of my friends would have gained nothing from forcing themselves to read a book.
Books have been the stores of knowledge for thousands of years. Even today, with the rise of digital everything, they are still hugely popular. Being able to read will never go out of style, and as long as people can read, they will be reading books. If society as a whole decided that reading was no longer necessary, then we would adapt to other means of communication as a substitute.
Growing up, I was constantly reading. Any free few seconds I got, I would be found picking up whatever book I was reading at the time, and I would try to tear through a few pages. I absolutely love reading for pleasure. While I have found it to be a bit tougher to find much enjoyment in reading my textbooks, I still read, knowing that it will help improve my knowledge and understanding of the subject. However, as I look around at my peers and younger sibling, I have noticed how much disdain and lack of interest there is in reading whether it is for school or for pleasure. There is a lack of engagement and presence that I have noticed. Whether or not it is from the lack of reading, of course, I do not have the science or evidence to back up that statement; however, I do believe that it plays a large role in this disengagement with society and our global world. Everything can be accessed with the touch of a button, and as many other classmates have mentioned, it is just as easy for us to have our devices read out loud to us. However, I think that this drastically takes away from the beauty of picking up a real book and turning the pages. Therefore, I do believe that society and humanity as a whole has the potential to decline as the lack of reading increases. At this point, I do not really see any sound solution to this issue (aside from destroying all devices), but this would of course translate into an even larger problem.
This is such an interesting discussion! I am of two minds about it to be honest. On the one hand, while preserving culture and skills is important, there is no culture or civilization that is truly the same as it was 75 or 100 years ago. People have always groaned and moaned about new technology and blamed it for decline in society. But no one really wants to go back either.
That said, the skills of writing and reading are more than communication skills, though they are an excellent foundation for other advanced forms (such as typing and speaking), they are developmental as well. My youngest is 8 now and in 2nd grade. His teacher is self-described “old school” and teaches the class cursive (in addition to printing and typing), letter-writing, and their only homework is nightly reading. I have come to appreciate her emphasis as there is no denying the results – his/their fine motor skills, attention to detail, understanding of the foundational basis of language is quite comprehensive. Interestingly, she does not mind if he reads or is read to in the evening. I mention that in response to some of the observations that many of us seem to want to have information read to us…and I’m not so sure that is a bad or “lesser” thing. As far as actual information transfer being less and less in content, there seems to be some truth to that though. I do think that will have impact on development and cognition, but perhaps a different skill will fill in some blanks?
I do believe more changes are ahead for us. I also believe it is important to be as thoughtful as possible about them.
Rebekah,
I like your point on how these seemingly basic skills help us to become more well rounded, and how new technology is something constantly sought after. No need to hate on modernism and progression in my opinion, similarly to what you stated. Not reading or being “alliterate” doesn’t seem to have serious drawbacks, but by incorporating it into our lives it surely does improve our minds as far as imagination and enjoyment goes. Nice post.
I just realized that I left out the evaluation of “goodness” or “badness” on society with the likely event of less reading by the majority – sorry about that! I should also add that I believe some fields (esp professional ones) will retain transmission of the written word though it may be in digital form. Also because of that, it is important to keep a good foundation of skills at the stage of development where none of us know who is who or who is suited for what.
I do not believe simply choosing not to practice literacy or conversely choosing to do so will automatically carry a moral value. Perhaps a wholesale lack of education and any self discipline would and that “slippery slope” is the angle we are addressing? I think individuals and society improving is far more nuanced than literacy and I think it would be a mistake to be so focused on it that we miss changes in society and culture that could require a modified definition of literacy. But so far, the skill of reading has been a strong and accurate predictor of success and as such should continue to be protected.
I have always enjoyed reading books. As soon as I finished one, I’d rush to buy another. Personally, I think it is very sad that there is such a decline in readership in today’s youth. I think the decline in readership will result in less creativity, limited vocabularies, and an overall lack of focus. It feels like there is a lack of patience now, that was not there before. There is so much technology that we become easily distracted. I don’t think technology is a bad thing, I think you just have to put actual effort into setting time aside from technology for blocks of time. Reading has been proven to help with brain stimulation, improve thinking skills, and improve your memory. I’m sure there are other ways of getting these skills, but I think it is important to keep readership relevant. I think ways of doing this all involve parent or teacher involvement. Introducing reading at a young age will help children develop an interest in reading and if teachers can make reading enjoyable I think kids will be more likely to do it. I remember growing up, one of the moms of a classmate would come and read a chapter of a book to us every Friday and we always looked forward to it. We also had a reading day every year where we would bring in a pillow and a book and we were allowed to lounge around and read for the day. We did this up until about 5th grade and we always loved it. I think more stuff like this would help bring back an interest in reading.
This is a loaded question for a class the requires a lot of reading. I think the answer is two fold. In the instant age and society our attention spans are limited to getting our news and answers to questions fast and in a hurry. The problem with this is we may miss some vital information or it may be omitted all together. I saw a post on Facebook that teased the readers with some enlightenment on a topic of howto live with kidney disease. The article talk a lot about other things, but did not get to the main point until sever adds, trailers and others way to just frustrate the reader. I for one was very frustrated. I wanted the information at the front of the article. Other readers felt the same way as I did and expressed that on the post, asking where is the information that was promised at the beginning of the article. Therefore, I think it can be a bad thing to bait and switch on readers. On the other hand reading empowers the reader and foster a good relation with book.
I personally have seen the effects of this in my own life. From the time that I learned to really read and enjoy it, between 7-8, I read religiously, spanning every genre up to about age 15. I would constantly have a book with me and a list of books that I wanted to read next. My parents would buy me books only to return them the next week because I read through them so quickly. All those years that I did read so much material, I was academically better off than my peers, as well as more knowledgeable about topics that were above my age learning level, and just had a better understanding of life in general. My spelling skills as well as grammar rules benefitted very much from all of my reading, and I believe those skills developed then still help me today. However I plateaued around my junior year of high school, when I was about 16, and from that I settled into an average academic/intellectual bracket compared to those my age. I believe the cons of a whole generation being alliterate include a generally less informed society, as well as less imaginative. However, the trade off seems to have been books for electronic devices and social media. I still do not believe anything to be a true substitute for the written word, no matter the genre. Reading improves grammar and vernacular/vocabulary of those who read more. Fosters imagination, and allows for further exploration of ideas. Grows patience and inner dialogue with ones’ own thoughts. I do not think that communication among people will suffer or decrease at all, only imagination or satisfaction with life to not reach its full potential, should those who read for pleasure further decline.
I believe the decline of readership among the youth of today will have a negative effect on society. This is because reading is important when it comes to learning. In schools many life lessons are taught through students reading stories; this allows students to get familiar with experiences that they have not lived themselves, so they can have a better perspective on an issue when they are in similar situations. Although there are alternatives to reading, I believe reading is usually much more engaging for students because it is easy to get distracted while listening to books. Reading is especially important when it comes to doing research. Without reading more than one page, it is almost impossible for students or just people in general to get a true understanding of a situation or problem. Reading allows for people to better analyze information because it lets people conveniently reread important information, as well as skim past irrelevant information. Not only does reading help people learn, but it is necessary in a number of important jobs, such as being a lawyer, doctor, or professor etc., so if a person in one of these careers dislikes reading, they may have a low job satisfaction.
Although reading among the youth is declining, that does not mean nothing can be done to help the issue. With all the changes in technology, there are many ways to avoid reading, such as audio books and text readers. Although these may be convenient, I believe they are not the most effective ways of learning, nor are they for doing research. In order to fix the problem I believe we have to give kids good first impressions of reading. This responsibility is on everyone, especially parents and teachers. If kids have positive experiences with reading early on, they will not look at it as much as a burden later on in life, therefore, making them less likely to be aliterate.
That being said, I do think there are benefits to the alternatives of reading, but when it comes to education, I think reading is usually much more effective then listening to books. However, ironically, I dislike reading very much and am extremely grateful for audio books, which have seemed to work fine for me, but who knows if I would be better off had I read more opposed to using audio books. I think every person has a different healthy balance, but overall I think the decline in readership will have a negative effect on society.
When I think about what our society will look like in an aliterate future, I honestly don’t see it as being that different. Don’t get me wrong, books are a great tool and a great resource for all, which is something I think no person could deny. Books greatly contribute to culture, and are used as a tool to inspire us, as well as teach us about our history. Aside from this though, there are new forms of media that can provide these same things for society. Though people may not read as many books, they still may do a lot of reading on e-readers or smart devices. Personally, I don’t remember the last book I bought that wasn’t for school. I strictly only buy e-books and listen to audio books. I also read a ton of articles and journals on my phone, many times throughout the day, most being between 1-20 pages. Even though they are short, there is still so much good information within them. Films and documentaries have also greatly contributed to the decline in reading books. Watching films and documentaries can be a great tool for learning, as they actively engage more of your senses. YouTube has really changed the game as well. For example, if I want to grow a garden, instead of reading books on tips and techniques, I can watch videos to learn about it, and most likely get a better understanding out of it, instead trying to interpret it from a text. All in all, I don’t think books are going anywhere, they will always be here and will always have their place. Society will never fully become aliterate in my opinion. But as people are reading less books, I don’t think it will have a positive or negative effect on our society and culture because new forms of media will fill that void.
If we look to the answer as to the cultural/societal effects of the decline readership among today’s youth it would be wise to also consider the many new forms of media which can compete with traditional books. For example, audiobooks are very common in today’s world. It was not that long ago that reading classical works or history required the time to do so. But with the dawn of audiobooks and similar media sources people can listen to Homer or John Locke while doing their laundry or on the drive into work. Furthermore, I would argue that the drive which makes a person seek out knowledge does not limit the search of knowledge to books only. Historically reading books was pretty much the only way gain knowledge outside of your local sphere. As such, it is now possible to listen to the lectures of some of the worlds best professors by simply logging on to Youtube. Granted a deeper understanding of the source of their lectures does require reading but in todays world knowledge can be gained without reading. I don’t think this makes a society better or worse in and of itself; With that said, it is the end user’s reasonability to have a discerning mind with any information they receive. This was true for books and is true for the media sources which are replacing books today. In summation, I don’t see the aliterate nature of todays youth as pro or con for the future. The knowledge is still there if they wish to find it and its easier to gain than ever before, no eye strain required!
I think if fewer and fewer people read books or only read things no longer than a page, we will see a decline in creativity and ideas, therefore, society will get worse. I believe one of the main reasons that fewer and fewer people are reading is because we want information fast. We achieve this either through a video or a short article. Something that I think can be done to change this and alter the course of humanity would be to require more reading in schools and to promote the health benefits of readership throughout a society or country. Demonstrate to the public how an aliterate country or society leads to all the same ideas and practices and is a desiderata for socialism. The people of the United States would immediately go out and buy books. And if the government could also twist it toward communism values, book sales would skyrocket. These are jokes, but do have some significance in the sense that the altercation of information can have both a beneficial and negative effect.
It makes me sad to think of a world where people no longer read books or anything longer than a page. I think it would make the world a worse place. People who read have more empathy than those who do not, like mentioned in “The Lessons of Harry Potter” section at the end of chapter 3 in our textbook. I love reading for fun, although I struggle reading textbooks. People also seem to have a shorter attention span and less creativity when they do not read. Reading helps with vocabulary, memory, and education. Not to mention it is entertaining, can be a stress relief, and can also make it easier to fall asleep. I enjoy reading what I enjoy while I am laying in bed trying to fall asleep and it works better than scrolling on my phone. One way to get youth interested in reading is helping them find a book they can enjoy, find out what they love, and look for age appropriate books for them. We can also educate parents on the importance of reading. I understand some families may not have money to buy books for their kids, so it is also important to have a library or access to books for those families. I live in rural Alaska and we do not have a public library with updated books. We do have a library but I don’t think it has been opened regularly in a few years. We could probably find out if there are grants available to order new books and ask the community what they would be interested in reading to have those ordered.
In my opinion, society would definitely be worse if people become aliterate. We’re already seeing a massive issue with people’s inability (and unwillingness) to thoroughly evaluate what they’re reading. If people are only reading less than a page of information, they may not be getting all the information necessary to develop a thorough understanding or opinion on what was printed. Then there’s also the tragedy of people just not reading and not experiencing the joy that can be found through books. There are so many incredible stories out there that can’t always be told well through movies. Fiction books also allow you to imagine yourself in a story and that can aid in creativity and more abstract thinking.
I honestly don’t ever see a world where people simply choose not to read, reading is a part of day to day life. I think we will always read but how and what we read is definitely changing. I do agree that it seems like people are reading fewer books. However, everyone I know is still reading something, just not traditional paper books. We know how to read and we do read. We just read on devices instead of holding a book. This semester I even bought my textbooks as online versions, mostly because it was cheaper but also based on my past experience when I have purchased bundled versions and found that I never actually opened the book, I ended up doing all of my reading through the online option.
I think everyone would agree that reading is an important part of learning and life. It develops your vocabulary, your imagination, and it provides an escape. I grew up with my parents reading to me every night. It was a way to relax, connect, and spend time together. Even though it meant that it was time for bed, it became a ritual I looked forward to. So I have an emotional connection to reading, books, and turning actual pages. But that is not how I read now. I own very few paper books, almost everything I read is electronic. Like everything else reading is changing due to technological advances. Now instead of having shelves of books at home you can have everything stored on one convenient device. Writing used to be done on a typewriter, now it is on a computer. It is so much more efficient that way. Reading used to be done from paper, now it is downloaded onto a device.
So if we were to quit reading I definitely think society would be worse in every way. However, I don’t see that happening. I will admit that technology has made my attention span shorter. I have less patience. I prefer to download my movies, songs, and books, and have them within minutes without having to wait or go buy them at a store. I will also admit that reading books is different than reading on a device. There is just something nice about turning an actual page and slipping a page marker in when you set it down. You can’t force people to go back to reading hard copies of books and give up their devices, this is how it is now. I think the most important thing is that people continue to read and children continue to learn to read in any manner as long as it happens.
I think there has definitely been a decline in people having interest in reading books, especially in my generation of people. We have become so accustomed to simply reading social media, off our phones, having things read to us by using technology such as Alexa or Siri, or have become more interested in watching movies rather than reading a story. I do not necessarily perceive it as a bad thing. With these new developments with technology, I think it is awesome to go see a movie that will fascinate you, or perhaps use Siri to find information regarding a topic. I think what people may lose is a deeper usage of vocabulary, or perhaps not knowing the meaning to words, but then again we can always take the time to look them up. I think books may help a person sort of imagine a picture that is unique to only themselves rather than what a producer or director of a movie may envision. Overall, I would say that the repercussions of people becoming less interested in reading full books or novels do not have a significant impact on the well-being of society, rather it could put us at a better advantage by becoming more interested in technology or uses of other reading resources.
I personally don’t feel that today’s youth choosing to read fewer hardcover or paperback books will change society in a negative manner. I initially thought that it would, but after putting some thought into it whether adolescents choose to read an actual book or choose to listen to an e-book doesn’t mean that they’re not stimulating their brain, not learning anything, or not grasping the actual story. They’re just choosing a specific format. A format that they’re accustomed to because that’s what they were taught was the norm, like iPhones, iPads, laptops, and Wi-Fi. The youth these days just tend to be savvier than we used to be because of the continuous progression in technology. I believe that they are just attaining information in different ways, whether it’s listening to an audiobook, Googleing it on the Internet, or using an app. I do believe that it’s imperative that younger children (babies and toddlers) read books growing up, as it’s a way for them to recognize letters, learn to count, and learn how to read.
I preferred the old fashion way of book flipping pages although I am living in the modern digital society. People try to think eco-friendly issues and etc., but how much pollution that papers make compares to people who chopped trees for logs for something else? Nowadays, the majority of papers that we use are from recycling including our toilets rolls.
There are some studies that suggested the children who can read has much related to their parents education and professional setting in their family, such as politics–communism, socialism, capitalism, and so on. If someone’s parents are high educated and have books in their house, children tend to read compares to the family who doesn’t have books at home. Therefore, that’s supported the environment influences the reading habit.
I do realized that many children can’t read in public schools and needed an extra teacher assistant to help them read outside the classroom while other students who can read stay in the classroom.
Go on the subway, on the Amtrak, on a bus, or walk by every park bench you can. How many people are on their phone, and how many are reading a book? I’m going to take a shot in the dark and say that an overwhelming amount of these people are looking at their phone or iPad rather than at a book or magazine. Without passing judgement on child raising techniques, I see way more children than ever before deep into an iPad or cell phone. While kindle books and reading a novel on your phone are of course a possibility, I cannot confidently say that’s a large, or even semi function of how they are used. With the age of reading dying out, how will this look long term? Studies have shown that kids who spend hours a day on an iPad, cell phone, or sit in front of a TV have delayed cognitive development. “What does delayed cognitive development mean?” you may ask. This can present itself with the lack of ability to concentrate and focus on tasks, the ability to sense other peoples attitudes and emotions, and to build a large vocabulary are all harmed (Volkow, et al., 2017).
With America already ranking 27th in IQ in the world, can we afford to lose these integral parts of development in our youth? In my opinion, we cannot. The future I see from these delays, or total lack of development in these areas is a scary one. A lack of empathy, of caring, of intelligence will poison our country. Misinformation will run rampant. How will these people be expected to cite a credible source, follow true information rather than false, if they are already so negatively affected by this affliction lack of reading and comprehension has caused? Will our society be more bigoted and racist than it already is? Could it be argued that these now adult individuals with such delays (especially the deficit of the sense of others emotions and feelings) will only be shadows of how individuals use to be? While the decline of reading may present itself to some as a small issue, I believe it will have a tremendous effect on our lives in the coming future.
Volkow, N., Koob, G., Croyle, R., Bianchi, D., Gordon, J., Koroshetz, W., . . . Weiss, S. (2017, October 10). The conception of the ABCD study: From substance use to a broad NIH collaboration. Retrieved May 22, 2020, from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1878929317300725?_rdoc=1
I feel a bit mixed really, I love reading and always have. Reading provides people with an escape from the real world with stories of far off places. At the same time I like being able to type in a word and have it pronounced to me to see if I understand it correctly. Our youth can not afford to lose the readers among them, simply because there is not enough of them to lose. In today’s world children are being encouraged to build things whether they are technological or something else they need to understand the world of knowledge through written power first. I am not a writer myself nor do I plan to be one but knowledge comes in many forms, and through many sources. All of which are beneficial to the young age in today’s society. If books were to become obsolete and only found in those rare thrift stores. How many children do you believe would actually find them? If it not for their parents going out and about to discover things in the area no one would know such a place exist. We can not afford to let that happen. Children need to be encouraged to read and have a love for books whether they are fiction and about Pokemon or non Fiction and about the Constitution of the United States. Children need to know the significance of books and important documents. The ones which they hold in their hands not on a tablet or a computer.
When we get to the point where no one will read more than a page is a world I don’t want to live in because we will lose the ability to learn. A topic can not and should not be boiled down into a page or less because everything is complicated there is nuance to everything that can not be explained in a page. In order to learn something you have to know all sides well and that can not be done in a page or less. But if this becomes a reality what we can expect to see is more extreme idea because we will lose the middle, the complicated parts. And all we will see is the headlines with no substance behind them.
To the discussion about audiobooks vs real book. Audiobooks are a blessing coming from a dyslexic (and I did use my phone to spell that). They are the only what that I can read effectively because otherwise, I can not focused on the content and just on the reading. When a school book does not work with my many texts to sound trick I find myself reading and immediately forgetting what I just read and it takes me like three times to get it right. Drive me insane. If it was not for audiobooks I would only read for school.
I agree with you that books are such a valuable resource to society, but I wonder about your conflicting views by then saying how much of a blessing audiobooks are to someone who has difficulty with a printed book? An audiobook can be called literature because it was written and then delivered electronically, but isn’t that similar to an educational Netflix series that was written and delivered electronically? Wouldn’t someone be able to learn information both ways?
I’m not arguing against the value of “literature,” I just think that term will become obsolete as society develops more ways to impart information, just as the art of the spoken word in recital has declined since books became more prevalent.
I understand you point on a page or less, it is horrifying to think that this could happen. Although with what I have seen it would not surprise me in the least.
My dad is the same way, he is also a dyslexic but when he listens to audio books he is a lot happier than struggling to read them.
Reading has always played a big role in my life, and it is something that I am very emotionally connected to. My home life wasn’t always the best, but reading offered me an escape when other routes couldn’t.
Despite the amount of reading college requires of me, I will never be tired of reading. It is sad to think of a world that is full of people who do not enjoy reading, nor do they get the enjoyment that reading provides to people like me. As explained in our textbook, society grew because of our books and the ability to read. It has played a developmental role in the society that we have today and has allowed us to continue to grow in many ways.
If we don’t read and experience these moments, how do we continue to grow as human beings? How do we learn to be compassionate to others? How do we understand that everyone has a different past? How do we plan on contributing to our world if we don’t want to contribute to our education?
If people choose to read less, it eliminates countless authors. Their work will no longer be enjoyed because no one will have the patience to enjoy their novels. Our history will rest untouched by new minds. People will never know of the treasures that can be found by looking into our past.
I believe society will be worse in an alliterate world. If people stopped reading anything longer than a page, that will only mean popular articles are read. I am not a big reader, and I mainly read for school. But I will still buy the occasional book, and I will certainly read something if it is over a page. I understand some people prefer audible books etc., which is fair enough. But, I know my mind would drift off and I would stop listening. If people stop reading anything longer than a page, I believe a lot of knowledge will be lost, and the world will turn into something unrecognizable. I believe it is better to be educated for the sake of the world and everyone else.
It’s always important to stay informed about the current evens in today’s world. With social media having a high presence in the information that we are presented with, it’s difficult to find those unbiased sources to allow us to think for ourselves. Gaining knowledge and expanding your vocabulary is important. The majority of youth are locked to their phone screens rather than taking the time to open up a book. Reading is important for our cognitive function due to the endless knowledge it provides while allowing our minds to stay active. Even in schools, It has even become more common to purchase e-books rather than paperback based on the benefits that e-nooks have from the website you have purchased it from. Rather than looking through the book and reading it yourself, you can just look up key words to find the answer. American youths have already been found to have such a low IQ an I believe it’s due to the convenience of media and websites that sway you away from opening up a book. There has been various studies conducted that back up the belief that reading books essentially “makes you smarter”. Reading allows us to learn about things that you wont necessarily find on social media. If you are centered on educating yourself based on application that can easily exaggerate the truth, how do you expect people to make educated and well though out decisions. I don’t believe that society will improve with time due to the little time our current culture spends educating ourselves through books and trusted resources.
The question of whether or not society will get better or worse because of fewer people reading books is predicated on the past when books were one of the few mass media available to get your ideas out. This lack of alternative methods meant that there are many books that have shaped history but not because of the medium in which these ideas were delivered, but because of the ideas themselves, so there is nothing special about a collection of paper bound together that helps or hurts society. What matters is that the ideas get to the people. Now if great ideas are only put into books, then people not reading them will be a problem for society, but that is simply not going to happen. People reading less will not be a factor in the trajectory of our society. The improvement or degradation of our society has always been based on what ideas society chooses to embrace.
I think society will not be really worse if only of few people read books. The main impact of it to our society is, there will be a lot of knowledge will be lost. Social Media can be use by everyone you can access everything easier than reading books. But people will not be sure if the information they are getting from internet are all reliable, and some of it might be bias. I think reading books is better than getting knowledge from the internet, ideas a person can get from books are more in-depth and still better to use as resources.
If someone were to explain everything needed to be explained in just one page for someone to understand, they’d be a literary genius. I think that it would almost impossible for society to read less and less because we wouldn’t be able to understand everything about whatever a subject or topic may be focusing on. For example, if someone were typing a case file, for one, they wouldn’t be able to only type one page and we’d understand everything, and two, there’s you’d have to keep reading to figure out the entirety of the facts and evidence that were presented. To combat this, I definitely feel like there has be some intrinsic motivation instilled in reading lengthy texts in society, especially at a young age at the lowest level possible. Encouraging others that it’s not mundane but very rewarding to read and grasp everything that is being presented whether in a textbook or leisure reading.
In order to survive in this day and age people do not necessarily need to read recreationally. As long as we can read menus, street signs, instruction manuals and other similar things, most can get by. With the technology that is constantly evolving around us, even the way that students learn has changed. Some students, however, learn better through the use of textbooks and reading. Regrettably, many students have also built negative associations with the literature they were ‘forced’ to read in school and have therefore drawn the conclusion that they do not enjoy reading. I was lucky enough to get into reading from a young age and it is still a hobby that I greatly enjoy today and therefore, I am of the opinion that reading is important, if for no other reason that it is something to enjoy. Reading provides a chance to spread stories and ideas and provides a broad range of work for many people. Society is coming up with more and more ways to spread information but reading has been a constant for much longer, providing much more than just the spread of information.
I think overall has a whole society would decline overtime. If you think about the world that books can offer, it truly is endless. The written material that is hundreds of years old has offered the spread of knowledge, perspective, and understanding. Books can improve vocabulary, enhance emotional development and overall increase growth and development. With society in this day and age there is a significant about of access to different forms of reading. I have learned over the years I prefer audio books over text for a variety of reasons. Mainly convenience, I am constantly on-the-go and this is a way I can multitask. It is also much easier access with having it all on my phone. This form of reading still has the benefits that an actual book has. It engages the mind, provides an experience, and increases knowledge. If reading was to decline society would be missing out on so much the world of reading has to offer.
If society reads fewer books or anything longer than a page then the world will go crazy. What I’ve noticed with the media is that we tend to not read the long articles that are in the links we see in Facebook, Instagram, etc. Instead we read a headline and share it to our friends. Sometimes this isn’t bad but mostly we are misinforming them. The goal of the media is for people to consume or become aware of things going on in the world. Because of this I learned the term clickbait. According to dictionary clickbait(on the Internet) is content that its main purpose is to attract attention and encourage visitors to click on a link to a particular web page. With clickbait people can get fed and believe the wrong information.
I unfortunately catch myself doing this when I’m using social media. Which is why I believe society will get worse considering the lack of reading we have. When I interact with people, we often talk about current events. But since I’ve fallen for the clickbait going around online, I have people who educate me. Politics for example, I know nothing about but my brother in law actually does his research. This is why books and reading is so important to us as a society.
I’ve always believed an education is important for our success. What we can do to educate ourselves and change the course of humanity is to normalize researching. Books, scholar journals, news papers, and magazines: these can help our evolution while we’re here. The media has us slightly brainwashed and I do see books to have more knowledge than what we give them credit for. The goal should be for humanity to achieve the highest level of success that we can. If it wasn’t for books and reading then NASA could have taken longer to get more people to space.
I think that as time progresses, society will begin to diverge from reading more and more. The reason being that with the invention of modern technology such as computers and the internet, people do not feel the need to pick up a book as a form of entertainment. They have access to thousands of movies, tv shows, games, and social media forums at all times. I have seen with many of my friends almost a disdain for reading, as if readers are a bane amongst society because according to them, why would you want to pick up a book and do something so boring? Unfortunately, reading is an excellent way to gain information and to learn. Many people find it easier to study and remember information when they have an actual book in front of them rather than random scraps of info from the internet. Reading is also an excellent way to expand your imagination, which is truly an important part of life. Imagination gives way to critical thinking and is an amazing way to exercise your brain. With the decline of reading in our society, I see people literally becoming dumber, seeking out facts less, and allowing others to make decisions and opinions for them. It will truly be a sad day when reading is no longer an enjoyed pastime by at least some of the population.
I’ve thought about these questions and I am really torn on how to form my opinion. I absolutely think reading is beneficial to our society as a whole, but I am unsure as to what benchmarks we should be measuring a “better or worse” outcome.
My great-grandparent’s generation struggled with the impersonal use of the telephone, they believed if you wanted to speak to someone, it was better to be done face-to-face. Older generations thought recreational use of the telephone would ruin their sense of community, and maybe it did to a certain extent, but I don’t think anyone could argue against the merits of Alexander Graham Bell.
Before the widespread use of the printing press, society as a whole relied on minimal copies of written word being passed down and protected through generations of people, and before the written word, people relied on word-of-mouth transmittal to gain information.
While books have long been our main portals of information, it is no longer the case. We cannot ignore the fact that we have a world of information available literally at out finger tips, and while books provide a scholarly exercise of the brain, they are no longer our first choice in research. Their value is held in terms of information and not being printed and bound on paper.
We want our children to read and treat the brain like a muscle, exercising it often and stretching it to its limits, but insisting that reading is better than acquiring knowledge electronically, one could also argue a horse and buggy are superior to a motorized vehicle, because while it may take longer to get the job done, it provides the body exercise and a chance to strengthen your muscles while transporting yourself from one place to another.
I cannot argue society as better or worse in terms of aliteracy. Much will be lost as a culture, but much will be gained as we evolve through information technology.
I love to read books! They offer an escape, teach you new things, and offer each of us different experiences of the world. I tried to imagine a world with fewer books and, I didn’t like the visual representation. I saw a world of people who had difficulty communicating and learning. The sad thing is that I have already witnessed this aliterate future. Kids spend more time on their phones watching YouTube Videos, posting the most recent dance on TikTok, or texting friends. These activities have replaced reading the mysteries of Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys of my days. The loss of books will affect society and, in my opinion, in a negative way.
When it comes to reading books, I feel one of the most important opportunities a human being can have through reading is the ability to see the world through the eyes of another person. The imagination of the mind is exposed to concepts that it wouldn’t otherwise be able to get to on its own.
Reading about the challenges a main or secondary character faces in a story can cause a person to understand how good choices and poor choices can be made in a given situation.
These types of encounters in the mind only occur when a person is vested in a story. It takes more than 1 page of text to get someone out of their own path and onto someone else’s.
The largest issue I can see with an aliterate world would be the lessening compassion for others.
The general public opinion regarding video games is that they dull the compassion for other human lives. But what if it were not the introduction of violent video games that brings this about but the lessening of reading, the lessening of opportunity to feel the world through another’s view point.
If adults more often modeled the behavior they would like to see in children, it might, perhaps, change the tide.
Being literate is the most important thing for our future, and the successful future of our children and country depends on us teaching our children to enjoy reading. In order to know where we’re going, and avoid repeating mistakes we need to know our past. The best way to learn about the past is to read as much about it as we can, through books as well as through historical documents. None of these documents or books are a simple paragraph or page long. So, the current generation and future generations will need to be able to maintain concentration and interest as they read. They will need to want to learn from what they’re reading and have efficient reading apprehension. The simplest way to make sure that we raise literate children is to teach them to read, show them that reading is a pleasurable activity by reading to them and reading with them. Also, finding books that they enjoy, giving them access to those books, and letting them read whenever they want. We have to be careful not to destroy a child’s love of reading by stopping them from reading what they enjoy, or by giving them worthy-but-dull books that we like but may not be in their interests. How will our society function if future generations are uninterested in recording and reading transcripts, if they don’t want to read established laws to evaluate a need for change, if they don’t want to read to further their knowledge? Will we arrive to a stalemate? Information has value, and the right information has enormous value. For all of human history, we have lived in a time of information scarcity, and having the needed information was always important, and always worth something. Literacy is more important than ever it was, in this world of text and email, a world of written information. We need to read and write, we need global citizens who can read comfortably, comprehend what they are reading, understand nuance, and make themselves understood. Through books we can communicate with the deceased. We can learn lessons from those who are no longer with us, lessons that humanity has built on itself, progressed, made knowledge incremental rather than something that has to be relearned, over and over. There are stories that are older than most countries, that have long outlasted the cultures and the buildings in which they were first told. If the future generations are alliterate then all of this would be lost.
I think it would be bad if society stopped reading. If people stop reading, what is the use in writing? There are so many people that express themselves better through the written word, including me.
The majority of our history is in books. The world needs to learn our history or it is bound to repeat itself. How would our kids learn in school? Humans are already lazy and it just seems to get worse with the advancement of technology. Now we listen to most of our books and where that is great for when you are busy working on other things, it gives people an excuse to not physically read things. Also there are a lot of people that are visual learners. They have to have something physically in front of them to really understand it.
It would definitely be a shame if we lose the written word because people become too lazy to read it. So many talented people would out of a job.
I think the less that people read, the worse off society will be. Reading, especially anything over a page, is vital to proper cognitive development. Just think about how much knowledge and how many stories can’t be condensed down to just a page. I think that with the advance of technology and the increase of social media type news sources, society started reading less and less. I suppose that it’s much easier to read a something short that gives the essential details than it is to read the longer version. The issue that I’ve always had with the shorter articles or stories is the lack of information that always comes with it. While you get the shorter overall read time, you can potentially miss out on some important information. I’m personally guilty of enjoying the short reads lately. With my life being a bit more hectic recently, it’s too convenient to pass up the short, summed up reads.
I believe the lack of reading among the society will make things worse. Due to the importance reading has on the brain and thought processes. With the creation of ebooks and the evolution of technology it makes it way too easy to pass up on reading a book or even many different articles creating a greater decline in reading among the youth over time. The major problem I see with this is the development of the brain especially in the youth and like Jeff Cunningham talks about the lack of information that can be given only in one page.
In my opinion, one page is not a lot of information to go by on many subjects and does not improve any type of reading skills. Teachers give us chapters to go by, because the more you read, the more your reading skills improve. Taking that away from people not only does it decrease reading function, but it also decreases the knowledge that you gain from reading books, articles, journals, etc. In today’s time, many people usually go off one-page readings, and misinformation is easier to come by. If encouragement was made to increase reading well-formed literacy would be made. Ignorance would then be decreased on subjects.
I do not believe that the world is getting worse because people are reading less and less books. I feel like they are being traded off not forgotten. I do agree that people to have a shorter attention span nowadays, but I believe that less people reading books might not be a bad thing. With the advent of the internet brings a lot more consumable content similar to books. Such as podcasts, informational forum websites, and the most infamous replacer of books audio books. A lot of people are replacing with what once was reading time with audio books while doing other tasks like the dishes or laundry. I prefer them because I can listen to a book but not have to be saddled down to a chair while I read. Its more time efficient and I feel like people today are always looking to make their lives more efficient.
The decline of reading books within the younger generation is something that I believe is hurting our nation today. Due to our lack of reading, we are less educated and easily manipulated to believe things that aren’t true. I believe this to be true due to personal experience as a football coach. In my three years, each year the kids seem to come in a little less educated and have a lot less of an attention span. This idea makes sense as they read less books and read more short articles on their phone. When it comes to being manipulated, this can be easily believed because that would mean they get their information from whoever teaches them instead of getting the full story from books. Overall, the younger generations reading less books is not good for our future as not reading only hurts their education and democracy runs only when people are fully educated so we can make the best decision as a country.
I believe that reading less of books is hurting the kids nowadays. Having audible books and podcast is convenient, are people actually listening to it or it’s just there for background noise. You have to focus when it comes to reading an actual book. If kids today aren’t reading an actual book, their attention span is hardly existence. I listen to podcast from time to time either when I’m driving to work or while I’m at work before we open, and I have to say I at some point drown out what I’m listening to. I have a couple of books on my phone and when I’m reading one of them I sometimes get sleepy because of how long I’ve been staring at my phone. People get their information from the internet and go of by that thinking it’s the truth when any and everybody can put whatever they want online. Overall I feel like having less books to read is hurting today’s kids causing them to have short attention span. Their not using their brain to its fullest potential.
It is my belief that society will continue to get worse if our future members continue to read less and less. If people only read things that are a page or shorter, they will lose many skills. In those short articles whether it is a summary of culture, or just a page of information. There is only so much that you can put in a page, somethings will have to be left out. These articles for the most part will not contain the fullness of the subject they are covering, or the author may have a bias on the topic they are writing about. If our generation continues to read less and less, they be at the mercy of the writers of those short articles. By reading the summary of a book instead of the book itself will you be unable to draw your own conclusions. You will have to believe what the author wrote because they are the ones that read the book. If you read less and less, you will lose the skill of drawing you own opinions about things. This will adversely impact a society because then they there would be a divide those who could read and understand and those who decide not to and just follow and accept what others think blindly. Books are the key to knowledge. In our society we publish books for others to read to share our ideas, information, and culture. If a people start to stop reading then they will no longer be able to experience different cultures, ideas, or information. If fewer and fewer people read books then fewer and fewer people will gain what comes from reading books and our culture will not strive forward but backward, because of the lack of knowledge and understanding. Now what should be done about this pattern of fewer and fewer people reading books. Although we already have people read in school, we should not just force kids to read but to want to read and learn more. Teach them to want to read and make their own opinions and want to gain more knowledge.
I can see society worsening if people stop reading books and literature longer than a page. There are so many great messages hidden within books that should guide and be learned from. Books like 1984 and Fahrenheit 451 both play as books that should serve as key books highlighting dystopian societies that aren’t super far out of reach, it only takes an overreaching government to simply throw our society off the tracks. Reading books and learning the information provided in them is how we keep ourselves educated and understanding of the times. If we don’t read enough or find the will to look into things further because we don’t want to read much prevents us from forming an educated stance on things. People in past have been easily deceived because they lack the interest in reading into things, and if this keeps up laws can be passed without a second glance just by giving it a good title to give people a false idea of true intentions.
Reading is one of the most useful ways to absorb information. Not everything can be taught or told to people. Reading is essential for a widespread dispersion of information. Staying informed is a rudimentary need for people of this era. For most of the time the news can not provide all of the information people need to stay truly informed which is why the ability to read more than the headlines is extremely necessary.
In the future, if society is to continue its aliterate trend, there are a few possibilities of what it may hold. Perhaps a greater alternative to reading will come forward. An example may be the ability to simply download the needed information into your head, like “The Matrix”. If a technology like this isn’t created or people continue to be aliterate then society will most likely maintain its current direction. People will take what they are given at face value while “The Man” is using societies complacence to achieve their own goals of power and before the masses realize, it will be too late and complete control will be had.
I, like many people, think that there will definitely be a decline in society if people stop reading. Reading is so important, it is important for knowledge, for developing opinions, for learning others views and cultures, and for so much more. It stimulates the occiptal lobe (which is the back side of the brain) as well. I think that one way to encourage reading in the society today is to have it progress with society. With all the technology in the world, kids are constantly on their devices, if we continue to integrate reading in to that that would be good. I think that also, in general, if parents and society in general stress the important of knowledge and making your own opinions then kids will inherently want to read and learn for themselves.
Reading is imperative for young students to not only grow intellectually, but also mature. I think that reading books in ones youth is often key to maturing as a person, as books often provide meaningful messages that we can apply to our lives. Other forms of media such as film can shape our views and provide these messages as well, but I think that reading is still important, as we have to stay engaged in reading it in order to finish the book. Oftentimes I find myself falling asleep during movies or day dreaming if I find scenes boring. However, while reading a book I have to stay engaged in the book in order to finish it, otherwise I have to go back and reread sections. This way, I think the messages and information tend to sink in better. If future generations were to read less, I think that this will likely result in a less educated society. Encouraging kids to read and learn at a young age is a great way to counter this. If they continue to read they’ll continue to learn, and that will help them grow intellectually and mature into productive members of society.
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I believe that the more aliterate that the modern population gets, the worse it will get in several ways. First, people will cease to independently research important topics, political or otherwise, and will rely on information from authorities or prominent figures to form their own opinions. Second, education will be less of a public priority and so will not receive the funding or attention it needs to be a thriving system. Considering that almost every first world country experienced a drastic increase in life expectancy, decrease in birth rates, increase in political involvement, and much more all directly correlating to the amount of resources invested into education, there are a lot of societal elements that this would be a concerning development to. Historically speaking, a population less informed is more likely to be manipulated and has more divisions in society due to ignorance than a more informed counterpart. Personally, I do not believe the current education system is sufficient, and in fact I find the constant removal of funding and general disregard for the education of further generations appalling, and the development of a more supportive system could go a long way to increasing reading rates. Alongside this would be ensuring that the working class has a disposable income and free time for leisure, which are both things that the current working class at large doesn’t have the luxury of and would require reform to ensure. As always with a renaissance-like movement, there would also have to be a significant catalyst popularizing it or else nobody would act.
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