Quote:
Originally Posted by Andrew H.
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.
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I'm 67 and I grew up with TV as a child. I also went to a top rated university and took some demanding English literature classes, classical music and other higher educational subjects. I still watch a minimal amount of TV but my preference is for reading, classics included, and I seek out unabridged versions to absorb the author's original intent. My point here is that reading skills are taught and sought, not inherent. When we don't teach them and then we fail to follow through by teaching our children the value and joy of fine literature, we are creating the situational laziness of today, I think.
When people do not read, they have little background against which to compare works of art. Motion pictures reward laziness in providing the visual and aural stimulation along with (usually) weak story lines. They are also over in an hour or two and as such reward increasingly shorter attention spans.
I, too, play a few video games, mainly aviation-related. They in no way take the place of a novel. Too many of today's children spend discretionary time with X-box and video games at the expense of reading. You can demonstrate that fact by asking children to read aloud a passage from legitimate literature. You'll soon see that very few can read it smoothly without stumbling over words, transposing words, dropping words and otherwise demonstrating errors in reading comprehension. What is the last X-box game you've encountered that requires reading skills above a simple word or short phrase?