my interest in reading was since my childhood though attracted to a television for a while, and i cannot remember when i last was stuck to this device for more than ten minutes. there is a general perception that reading books is good, watching tv is harmful. in spite of my belief in this, i do not see the reasons till the time of writing this article.
what is the difference between watching a documentary on the russian r e v o l u t i o n and reading a book about the same subject? there are good books and others are bad and same applies to films.
in 2014, the tohoku university of japan conducted an examination on the brains of 276 children who spent a lot of time watching television and monitoring the impact on them in the long term. it turned out that the more children attached to watching television, the more parts of their brains became associated with higher levels of excitement and aggression, while at the same time expressing the ability to think verbally declined.
in the same year, the emory university conducted an experiment on how reading a novel affects the brain. students were asked to read the pompeii novel about the mount vesuvius revolution in italy. the book was chosen because of its eloquent language and drama plot based on real events.
after reading the novel, it was noted that the communication among the students involved and parts and had an effect on their brains especially the part related to language. the increase in activity was noticeable in the brain’s motor area, indicating the students had similar feelings to the characters of the novel.
a team of researchers from the ohio university interviewed 107 pre-school children and their parents and tested them and found that increased television viewing weakens their cognitive outlook.
a study published in 2015 published in cerebral cortex revealed that watching television for hours could alter the structure of the human brain. the longer the child or adolescent spends in front of the television, the more the frontal lobe of their brains becomes thicker. it is the area known as the higher or the lower verbal intelligence.
scientists also found that there are also long-term effects of reading books. reading keeps the mind alert and delays the cognitive decline of older people. older people who read regularly are less likely to alzheimer’s disease than those who regularly watch tv shows.
a study sponsored by the university of sussex in britain has shown that reading for minutes every day reduces daily stress at a high rate even more than listening to music or walking.
reading is also related to increasing our vocabulary, our mental attention and increasing the logic in our thinking, and this is the opposite of what happens with many who watch television.
if we ask a mother to watch television with her little son and ask another to read a book with her son, we find that the reading in the second case increased the communication between the mother and her little son.
it is easy to stop reading a paragraph to talk or to respond to her son’s questions and be back again to the book while this cannot happen if you see something on television even if it is silly as it is not possible to see what has gone by.
television is designed to be negative, there is no effort on the part of the viewer and the programs are designed to be fast-paced to prevent channel switching, while books on the other hand are not limited to entertainment and learning. the reader has to focus on what he reads and thinks about the concepts.
when we read, we often have to use our imagination to fill gaps. books also have an in-depth description of the event. how to switch from tv addicts to readers is not easy but an interesting and challenging question, and the answer may be more reading.