Have you ever picked up an old fairy tale book? If you have, did you remark upon anything different? I am not talking about the incredibly un-Disney like endings, but upon the diction used. I felt a drop in my stomach when I realized how much we have diminished our language.
The book industry is also in a crisis. People are leaning toward parking themselves in front of a television, or cruising the net, instead of setting down with a book. There is conjecture on whether or not we will even be using books in the next hundred years, considering everything is starting to be digitalized. A step in that direction can be found in new technology that resembles an ipod, except for novels. It’s probably better for our planet but I know that I would miss holding a book in my hand and turning the crisp pages.
Everything feels like it’s coming too fast and easy. Instead of actually reading “The Tragedy of Richard the Third”, why not just read the spark notes? Sure you wont get any of the lyrical value but I am sure you’ll be about to quote, “A horse, a horse! my kingdom for a horse.” I know that this entire post seems haphazard and misshapen, but I hope that I am getting across the general feeling that we are losing parts of our culture to expediency.
I guess I just want to leave you with this quote from Ray Bradbury, “You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.”
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I feel so strongly about this myself. A technological age seems so...individualistic, even more so than we already are as a culture. Instead of reading an author's original thoughts, we read thoughts about his thoughts, which take more time. Or we email instead of call, or even call instead of visit. We watch television for many social gatherings, but why make them gatherings at all when all you want to do is "shush" the person next to you when the talk because "this is the good part." Steadily my fear rises for what our culture will be like in even ten more years. I can not imagine introducing my children to a world when technology is practically a person, and a personal face-to-face interaction is almost an inconvenience. In fact, it makes me wonder how less and less human interaction will affect either aggression or passiveness in the next generations, and it certainly leads to a probability of more and more disfunctional people around the world. People are not supposed to be alone.
A huge part of my time is spent at the computer lately. And I don't even necessarily like "surfing the net". I spend a good deal of my time on a computer for school. I think the use of technology in education can be a great tool but I don't want to have to rely on computers more and more in my life. I agree, our society is pushing for more things to be availble online or in digital format, and I doubt we'll see a decrease in that trend for some time. I don't know about others, but I personally love to sit and read a book, its my way of relaxing. I hope this action of physically holding a book, or magazine and reading it doesn't fade away even more as years go on.
On the other hand, in some cases I am thankful for the large amount of information people can find online. It's useful and readily available.
Our society does want things now and not only that but fast so no one is inconvenienced. That's apparent in many aspects, not just with the digital revolution. I think people need to relearn or learn for the first time what it means to be patient.
I think it's a shame how much technology is taking over the way the children of today learn. Yes I do believe that computers and the internet have made our lives easier and it is a much more efficient way to find information, but we're in college writing papers or research proposals, not learning how to read.
Everytime I see a commercial on TV for those Leapfrog pads or little computers for toddlers I get that same sickening feeling in the pit of my stomach. I know that the kids growing up in today's world should be introduced to the technology that they will be using for the rest of their lives however, why can't they sit down with Dr. Seuss and learn how to read and rhyme just like we did? I mean, we turned out fine.
I think that the use of technology starting at and early age isn't necessarily destroying culture, just creating a new one that children are forced to be brought up in and in which we must then adapt.
I must agree with the portion about the use of the English language. In an age of "LOL" and "BRB", not only are are we forgetting how to spell and use words properly, we're also forgetting meaning. After saying "LOL" so many times, how often does it become just a saying and not an action. Are you really laughing out loud because of something someone said or simply using it in internet chat to kill akward silence since the "ums" and "uhs" can't be heard?
i totally agree with your post; yet i don't think people are getting dumber from reading things off the internet, but i do think we are too interested in tv, and surfing the web. I think that kids now, are watching crazy shows, and playing too many video games. This post does make me realize how much of my day consist of being on my computer, and i feel naked without it, but this is terrible!
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