A new type of reading problem is currently sweeping this world. It is called aliteracy. It is defined as “the quality or state of being able to read but being uninterested in doing so.”
Reading, which was once indulged in as a pleasure is now often spurned as a chore, and people do not actually view it as fun anymore.
Many adults are aliterate too. It is clear that reading ability is not always matched by reading desire. This is true even among very well-educated people. Majority of people that I have come across, after reaching home from work or school either turn on their television (to watch movies) or radio (to listen to music) instead of picking up a book to read.
The question I ask is; what has happened to reading?
In recent decades, its popularity has succumbed to the attention-grabbing media. Almost every household today is occupied with a set of television and radio. All these media are filled with interest – arousing programs that make it difficult for one to forgo them. Perhaps the most time-consuming competitor of reading is television.
According to research, by age 65 the average person will have spent nine years of his life watching TV. Since the rewards of reading are so often sacrificed to the flickering screen, it would be well to consider the following.
The Benefits of Reading
Reading stimulates the imagination: Television does your thinking for you. Everything is spelled out: facial expressions, voice inflections, and scenery.
With reading, however, you select the cast, set the stage, and direct the action. You can make each character look exactly the way you want him to look. You’re more in control of things when you read a book than when you see something on TV. “Television captures the imagination but does not liberate it. A good book at once stimulates and frees the mind”, a doctor once said.
Reading develops verbal skills: No child or adult becomes better at watching television by doing more of it. What skills are required are so elemental that we have yet to hear of a television viewing disability.
In contrast, reading requires and develops verbal skills; it is inextricably linked with speech and writing. There is no question that a person’s success as a student depends enormously on his/her vocabulary, both in what he/she can understand as he/she reads and in how he/she reasons as he/she writes. The only way to build vocabulary is by reading.
Reading promotes patience: More than a thousand images may flash across the TV screen in just one hour, leaving little time for the viewer to reflect on what he is seeing. This technique literally programs a short attention span. Not surprisingly, some studies link excessive TV watching with impulsive decision making and restlessness—in both children and adults.
Reading requires patience. Sentences, paragraphs, and pages unfold slowly, in sequence, and according to a logic that is far from intuitive. At his/her own pace, the reader must interpret, evaluate, and reflect upon what is on the page. Reading is a complex decoding process that demands and develops patience.
It is most often said, you can hide something from an African if only you put it into a book. Should that really be the case? After reading this article, I hope you will make a promise to pay attention to the books, same way you pay attention to the screens…
Article was submitted by Kwame Hagan, a level 400 student at the Ghana Institute of Journalism.