The twenty first century is the age of digitalization, and we’re seeing a gradual shift from print media to digital and social media. Newspaper and magazine subscriptions are falling, book sales are decreasing and print media is declining. On the other hand. Global giants of social media like Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and Facebook are ever on the rise. E-books have also become pervasive among readers. What are the implications of this digital shift? Let us see why we need more books for kids and not more social media platforms.
Why We Need More Books For Kids And Not More Social Media Platforms:
Social media doesn’t add value learning
Platforms for social media are a great place for entertainment, but there are only very niche spaces that offer value learning platforms. Books are full of information and knowledge, but social media platforms are usually full of futile images. Even though social media offers an important avenue for self-expression, it also has negative impacts. An increased emphasis on appearance over mind and superficiality over depth is one of them.
Books increase attention spans
To read a book and grasp it, a reader needs to focus and concentrate all his mental energy onto the book for a sustained period of time. This increases attention spans. However, one can browse through social media indefinitely without really taking anything in, or even while doing other things. Thus social media, as practiced by millennials, is a waste of time that could be utilized in a better way.
Social media can become distracting
The most ugly aspect of social media is that it can lead to addictions, hence becoming a distraction. It is not uncommon for millennials to think about Instagram all the time, even at the expense of living in the present moment. On the other hand, books offer a more immersive and fruitful experience that does not distract.
Books lead to empathy and compassion
Books make you relate to the main character – they make you forgo your own experience and live in someone else’s world for a while. This builds empathy – the experience of feeling what another feels. They make us better human beings, while social media does nothing of the sort. Instead, it might just increase self-centrism because you continually compare yourself to others and put yourself at the centre of everything.
Social media inhabits imagination
Social media presents ready audio-visuals which fail to stimulate the imagination. On the other hand, books make you recreate a bookish world in your head. Basically, you start imagining the setting, time, place, characters, dialogues in your mind. This stimulates imagination and also makes you more receptive and open in your perspective. It really just gets the creative juices flowing. On the other hand. Social media merely provides an avenue for self expression without really giving anything to stimulate that self expression.
Books encourage the brain to work more and harder
Studies have shown that books lead to an increase in mental activity. They make you think, introspect, analyze, rationalize, imagine, consider viewpoints etc. Thus they improve neural connections, and increase the IQ. They make you not only better humans but also more intelligent humans. Social media, on the other hand, makes you complacent and trains you not to use your brain too much.
Books enhance vocabulary and language skills
Books have several obvious and practical benefits that social media doesn’t as well – books improve language. Understanding the nuances of language, the words that are used and the way they are used, the formation of sentences, the syntax and semantics of it is essential to mastering language. But social media is inert in that respect – it does not offer any linguistic stimulation of any kind. Thus, though it may have its own benefits, it cannot outdo books in any way.
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