The Effects Of Certain Forms Of Technology On Reading Skills Essays Examples

WRTG 101S

Digital technologies have changed the world recently. They influenced every aspect of our life: e-readers, e-book and tablets made people forget about the old things that new gadgets replaced a decade ago. More and more people use technological devices in their every-day life that is why they have substituted the ordinary things such as printed books for example. Reading habits have been drastically transformed as well. Now people are taught to read quickly and almost everywhere but losing some piece of information or ability to concentrate.
After the e-reader had became a wide-spread device, the world experienced reading expansion. People indeed began to read more. According to statistics, almost 40% of participants read eleven and more books during the last year. The latest surveys convey that the percentage of children who read e-books has nearly doubled since 2010, but there are still those people who go on reading printed books, however, the percentage of the latter is decreasing. It became possible due to the simplicity and affordability of the gadget. Doiron (2011) states that “many public libraries have embraced the use of e-books and e-readers in their efforts to promote reading, keep up with client demands and address the specific needs of young readers.” Some people also mention the element of “coolness” of devices that made reading popular again. Others tell that e-reader really opened the world of free books for them: sometimes there is no need to pay, just download and start reading. The e-books fit to those who are interested merely in contents of stories they read, for whom visible features are not important.
The popularity of e-books is soaring. They are admired for their affordability and convenience and blamed for complexity and general uncertainty about relying too much on technologies. Gardener (2011) supposes that “the increasing use of e-readers will cause users to merely “skim” rather than read and will cause reader distraction rather than knowledge absorption or contemplation” (p. 29). Thus it may influence the studying process and the whole education system in a bad way. Reading from screen may lessen the ability to focus due to continuous distraction. When used for educational purposes, e-readers may cause lack of engagement with the text therefore it is better to have printed text at hand for maximum knowledge.
Many surveys also found out that reading on the e-reader is more “viewing” than “reading”. People miss or omit a lot of information because they “dip in and out of e-books” not reading even the whole chapter. Other participants mentioned that e-readers simply do not suite for extended reading. Such devices are good for reference, they are acceptable for quick and short reading. It is always useful to have the text at one's convenience, but for full comprehension it is better to have printed version (Gardener, 2011, p. 30). But anyway the e-reader now remains to be one of the must-have gadgets and this fact is already taken into account by school and institute traditional libraries. The more devices are sold, the less students appear in the libraries (Doiron, 2011).
Another issue that became evident is new manner of reading. People read only those parts of the text that are typed using larger front of highlighted. They omit reading large paragraphs following the rule “the easier, the better.” One will sooner read a list of main hero's features than real description of protagonist's character. This is why e-reading made people lazier and put them further from understanding the art of writing. It proves that if printed books become extinct, the humanity will be left without possibility to appreciate good writing skills.
The problem with e-readers lays in the special conditions they require. It includes adjustment of lighting, the effect made to eyes from a prolong reading and some operational mistakes that tablet makes, for example, turning over more pages than is needed or endless pauses between each page with line “wait please”. There are also other complaints about e-readers such as the size and quality of the screen, possibility of breaking this small device, necessity to charge batteries and so on. But certainly e-readers facilitate reading process in transport, public places and queues, but if a person reads in order to gain something from book or for the emotional charging, he or she will prefer the printed version (Doiron, 2011).

References

Doiron, R. (2011). Using E-Books and E-Readers to Promote Reading in School Libraries: Lessons from the Field. Proceedings from IFLA'77. Retrieved from http://conference.ifla.org/past-wlic/2011/143-doiron-en.pdf
Gardener, L. (2011). A Kindle in the Classroom: E-Reading Devices and Reading Habits. Language Arts Journal of Michigan, 27(1), 29-33. Retrieved from http://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1832&context=lajm