In the United States today, the
ability to read has become so expected that it has become a marker of age and
growth in society. First we learn to crawl, we say our first word, we take our
first step, and then we learn to read. The beauty of reading is that it has not
been lost in the ever-changing world of technology. As Hermann Hesse claims, “We need not fear a
future elimination of the book. On the contrary, the more that certain needs
for entertainment and education are satisfied through other inventions, the
more the book will win back in dignity and authority.” While our brains are
constantly flooded with the intense stimulation from media, books remain a pure
and authentic form of mental exercise keeping our imagination from dwindling
away in world that puts little value in the ability of one to create in their
own mind. I love books because everyone approached them a little differently.
With a movie or TV show, we all see and hear the exact same thing. I like,
perhaps a little selfishly, that each person is able to make a book his or her
own. No matter how detailed and colorful an author is, everyone is able to
imagine a story in a slightly different way. I hate watching a movie based on a
novel before reading the book; it takes away from the fun of reading. For me,
this is when I feel lazy. I have preconceived notion of how this character
looks or how his or her voice sounds. It takes no work on my end to immerse
myself in the world of the book because it has already been shown to me. When I
was little, my mother would frequently tell me that TV would rot my brain. I
think what she really meant by this that TV prevents any growth of the ability
of invention. You can watch TV or a movie while scrolling through your twitter
feed or cooking dinner; it requires little attention. Reading forces each of us
to stop, sit down, focus, and open ourselves to our imagination in a society
that is constantly turning us into robots free from original thought.
I agree that TV gives our brains little room to imagine and therefore work itself because there is no room for interpretation. I actually did my sophomore year term paper on how technology,especially TV is affecting a child's adolescence. What I found was right along the lines of what you are saying? Children these days, instead of going outside and playing are watching hours a TV a day. This leads, commonly, to an increase in consumption of junk food and a decrease in amount of exercise causing things like diabetes at a young age. What I found that was even more astonishing was that watching TV is actually hurting a child's brain development at a time, the adolescent period, when their brains are supposed to be growing and developing like no other. TV is not challenging their brains. They are not using their brains and straining themselves to watch TV, it is more of a passive action, when a child needs to be actively challenging their brain. This can lead to underdevelopment of their brains. Isn't that astonishing? All those times your parents said that TV is rotting your brain they weren't exactly wrong. At the end of the day what does this have to say about books. Well for one it is a great alternative to TV and will actively engage the brain. But secondly it shows us why books should never die out. They are active! When one sits down to read a book, as Lily says, you have to put your full focus into and engage your brain. You not only engage your brain because reading the words on the page is harder than watching images on a TV screen but because you are left with a current about of creative leeway. What I mean by this is current things are left to your imagination, like how each character will actually look and that is when your brain takes off in wonderful stride. I know for me at least that after reading a book and going to see the movie(for me with the Hunger Games) I was almost disappointment because the characters did not look like I had pictured them. My brain had formed an image of what they looked like the whole time I was reading and I didn't even notice. That was the magical work of the book!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed this blog post. I found your interpretation of the article so different from mine which was interesting to read. I couldn't agree more about how TV and movies require little work and are simply lazy. I especially like how you explained that selfishly you like being able to imagine the characters and books on your own. Movies really are an easy out, everything is given to the viewer resulting in left little to wonder. With books you can decide how symbols and themes relate to one another. To agree with Anna, it is important that children are raised reading more than they watch TV because this can have an overall negative effect on their health and development. It fascinates me how in society reading is a given and really taken for granted, but also to echo you, Lillie, a marker of our societal growth.
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