Quote:
Originally Posted by mldavis2
Don't mean to incite an argument here, just explaining what I think I'm seeing. First, 'reading' and sending text messages is hardly in the same category as reading War and Peace. True, one must have some command of the language in order to then learn the abbreviated vernacular, but the whole idea of texting is short, quick communication. I don't see text messaging as having much at all to do with reading skills which require assimilation of often complex phrasing and extended sentence structure.
My reference to 'instant gratification' was similarly intended to compare the banality of phrasing, brevity of communication skills and subsequent time needed, in comparison (again) with reading War and Peace. Yes, being able to instantly (well, maybe in a minute or three) download War and Peace is quite different from taking the extended time to read and understand it.
No argument here, just clarifying my intent with the post.  |
If there is a decline in communications skills, it has nothing to do with texting and Xbox, and everything to do with television, radio, and movies. In other words, it is of long standing.
It's not like the great mass of people (especially young people) were reading War and Peace until texting came along. They had plenty of other reasons to not read War and Peace before that - most notably, again, television. In this context, it's interesting to compare the older versions of the Hardy Boys books, written in the 20's and 30's, to the rewritten version from the 50's and 60's. The rewritten versions were greatly simplified, specifically to compete with television (although they also removed a number of offensive racial stereotypes).
And, for that matter, there's probably something to be said for the theory that the popularity of complex 19th century style novels has declined because the 19th century audience for whom it was written - educated, well off, and with large amounts of leisure time - has little in common with the 20th century audience, who tend to be much busier with jobs, etc., and have less time to spend the entire day reading.