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Who Has Time to Read?

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I personally think that in terms of reading, society has changed immensely compared to the past and we are heading in a negative direction. Nobody has the time to read anymore. It has gotten to the point where we occasionally see someone pick up a magazine while waiting for an appointment, or while waiting to board a flight. The truth of the matter is that reading is not a priority. Students are overburdened with piles of homework and projects, textbooks, extracurricular activities, and finding things that look good on college applications. Adults are struggling to keep their jobs in this tough time with the downfall of the economy, and many are working 12 to 14 hours a day. Who has time to read? In the little breathing time that people have, they want to relax or be with their friends instead of read. Reading is not very appealing to most people, because they would prefer to participate in activities that let their minds go free. When you read, you need to focus your mind and concentrate on the material. The habit of reading has to be developed at an early age, or else it will be harder to inculcate this habit as you get older. This can happen when parents encourage their children to read. Now some of you may ask, what’s the big deal? What’s so great about reading anyway? Well, reading broadens and exercises the mind, and helps people see things from different perspectives and views. There are a countless number of amazing inventions that have taken place in the fields of science, technology, medicine, and more. These are innovations that have come from the minds of real people. As challenging as they may seem, it makes sense once people read about it in books. If reading stays a pastime or a leisure activity, they will never learn. As technology is becoming more advanced, there are ways for people to read books online. So when people to get a chance to read, they usually end up just reading online because they’re just so much more used to using technology for everything. It makes things easier, faster, and more convenient. Whatever happened to actually picking up a real book and flipping through its pages while anticipating what lies ahead in the next chapter? It just isn’t the same as scrolling down an iPad. If our society continues to neglect books for these various reasons, books may turn out to be a rare thing. We’re tracking to turning books into “an endangered species”.





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Kirsten L. said...
Aug. 11, 2012 at 4:26 pm
I like this article because it does show a problem in society. Rarely do I ever see anyone actually sit down a read a book unless it is a popular 'must read' book that's being turned into a movie.  One thing I would like to say about this article, though, is that I think that you need paragraphs. There are multiple different topics in this article and every topic deserves a different paragraph. It'll make this work easier for the eyes and much easier to read through. Becau... (more »)
 
Rayyn said...
Aug. 3, 2012 at 2:55 pm

I thought that your point was well made until the end of the paper when you begin to talk about ipads and internet. Is your point about people reading more or people reading books more?

 

If you backed up some of your arguments with statistics, it would be even more persuasive than it already is.

 

Another suggestion is to use paragraphs. Using paragraphs allows you to focus more accutely on one thing and therefore makes your arguement even stronge... (more »)

 
nikkigonefishin said...
Jul. 27, 2012 at 11:51 pm
I like the point you are making and the way you are defending books. I am a big reader but I disagree with you in one thing. As much as I love the smell of old books and tracking my progress by seeing where my bookmark is I feel that if people who are always busy have time only to read online, then I think that is better than having them not read at all. Its not so much the book itself but the content, the literature, that educates the mind. This incoming technological wave is a sign that we mus... (more »)
 
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