by George Leard

Created on: February 15, 2009   Last Updated: April 02, 2010

Is the Internet hurting Reading Skills?

The Internet and the marvels of technology associated with it is a major attraction for all age groups, but can and may hurt the proper development of the reading skills necessary to enter certain academic disciplines.

Reading skills are developed by reading widely and engaging in the thought process and word use of diverse writers.

However the Internet provides so much entertainment and personal communication facilities such as texting, emails, blogging, and others so that less time is spent going to libraries and reading at home.

In the process of mingling in any crowd on any given day people can be seen engaging with the Internet on their I-Pods, and cell phones that they hardly even notice those around them.

Reading widely helps to improve ones level of imagination as well as the ability to express one's self in all areas of life. The ability to properly express ones opinion can either help to sink or promote anyone into position of prominence especially at interviews.

In the 1980's a top executive was fired from his job in a West Indian country because he consistently misspelled a specific word despite being corrected a number of times. Research done on the accuracy of his academic achievement showed that he had forged his papers.

Had this man spent time developing proper reading skills at the appropriate age levels, he would not have fallen so disgracefully.

Reading Skills Development requires mental discipline, efficient time management and application, but the level of time spent browsing the Internet is a great deterrent to the achievement of this critical skill.

We are living in an age where people love to have a quick fix like how the microwave operates, and as such the choice to spent quality time reading as against enjoying the Internet and its fascinating entertaining features is very challenging and demanding.

Children and adults alike will spend hours on the Internet without even being conscious of it, while they will find it too boring to pursue reading which is more beneficial to intellectual development.

A visit to a New York Middle School recently showed a serious delinquency in the Book Reading reports of a number of students especially the 8th and 9th grade students.

However many of them can be seen after school firmly glued to their cell phones,sending and receiving text and even smiling in many instances.

Should this scenario be a microcosm of the state and nation at large, then a serious intellectual disaster will be on the horizon waiting for us.

In order to become Engineers, Physicians, Lawyers, and Scientists, critical reading skills are needed but with the threat from the Internet the number of students entering these professions will face serious and continuing decline, thereby jeopardizing the global competitiveness of the country.

In closing therefore one could conclude that the Internet is definitely hurting the reading skills of the nation and this is reflected in the lower graduation rates, low level of technical skills for certain jobs and the high level of demand for lower paid jobs as well as the number of students entering professional studies that require high levels of reading, comprehension, and analysis.

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