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Scrolling gadgets is no substitute for serious reading
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IN this gadget-dominated era there are many reasons to raise our voices, plant our noble standard and rally the literary troops to defend the notion of why the skills of reading are fundamental for our society’s healthy progress. We must remember that only 130 or so years ago, most of us were denied the opportunity to learn the skills of reading through the political will of inaction.
Let’s be clear: Reading empowers people. But this hard-fought right is under attack from our ubiquitous technological devices. One could argue that more people are reading now than ever before, and this is true as all around people scroll away on their various devices. This limited gadget-vocabulary serves a functionally literate society, but it doesn’t require the rigor and depth of understanding that a challenging piece of literature or a quality magazine or newspaper demands.
As an English teacher the debilitating effects of overreliance on technology is evident in the classroom, where you now see some students struggle in sustaining their reading for a long period of time. The ability to read for a substantial amount of time is a valuable skill in order to digest and be able to disseminate information and is a prerequisite for higher education.
The everyday expression that one can “get lost in a good book” is a positive statement of how beneficial and healthy reading can be. Reading can take us away from the daily grind and replenish us with new knowledge and emotional well-being. Reading a book, unlike the constant, almost dictatorial instructions from various online sites, apps and so on, is an experience where you are allowed to read in an uninterrupted linear fashion and not be tempted to click away on various links.
In the classroom reading comprehension activities offer the student a range of questions from word definitions, individual interpretations, the ambiguities and connotations of certain words and the skills of summarizing. With close textual analysis students are challenged by their reading material to unearth some truths. Technological devices play an integral role in education and have inspired many students with their inventive approaches in delivering subject matter, but the importance of reading should never be undermined.
(Alan Wallace is head of English, Drama & Media of BISS Puxi.)
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