R
eading books for fun has become archaic as
television and social media affords an alter-
native to indulge our need for “fun”. We are
in a milieu where reading has lost the prece-
dence it once held. Some may repudiate the latter
and purport that only the platform for reading has
transmuted – from paperbound reading to digital
reading – but not the concept of reading itself. The
proponents of digital reading also laud technologi-
cal advancement for the convenience it bestowed
upon us, making it possible for us to read anywhere
at any time. Albeit technological evolution conferred
convenience upon us, it has also percolated certain
abilities we once possessed- particularly, our abil-
ity to comprehend longer texts and our ability to do
perspicacious reading (Hertz, 2014). Nevertheless,
technological advancement is not the sole miscreant.
Our social environment and our educational system
also influence how our children read and how they
perceive reading. We should encourage our kids to
possess a more holistic view on reading: to embrace
both fictional anecdotes as well as non-fictional texts;
to read for pleasure and not just to satisfy the curricu-
lum’s demands.
ing outside of the classroom improves academic
performance is buttressed by a study conducted by
National Literacy Trust (Vasagar, 2012). However, an
independent study by Common Media Sense evinced
that the percentage of children who read for pleasure
has diminished significantly in the past 3 decades and
this trend follows into their adulthood as well (Alter,
2014). The study also elucidated that around 45% of
17-year-olds read only 1 to 2 times per year. (Alter,
2014). This makes us wonder as to what caused the
decline in the reading rates?
Technological Advancement – TV,
Social Media, Digital Reading
There are alternative ways available to engage our
children other than books. For instance, there is a
penchant for making a novel into a movie or televi-
sion series. The aforementioned study by the National
Literacy Trust revealed that 54% of children favored
watching TV to reading books (Vasagar, 2012). I be-
lieve that reading a book allows the autonomy for a
child’s imagination as they recreate mental visuals
based on the story described by an author. However,
when the same novel is made into a movie, a child is
indoctrinated by the director’s portrayal of the scenes
Reading for Fun
as they passively view the images in the order dictat-
Reading is not circumscribed to homework and ed by the director. Thus, reading a book is cognitively
schools’ curricula. We are discussing “reading-for- an active process than watching TV (Ordway, 2010).
pleasure” not “reading-for-school”. The fact that read- In addition to TV, social media also prepossesses kids.
Winter / Spring 2017 | ZEALOUSNESS MAGAZINE |