Media – Harm or benefit : Part 2 Books Section1

Printed books

One of the most important communication channels of man is speech. Most people enjoy communicating and often use this in a form of spoken word. But there is another kind of communication, not less important and valuable – writing, which is a spoken language, imprinted on the media. Until recently, the main carrier was paper such as books, newspapers, magazines. Reading – it’s the same dialogue, but it can be said through an intermediary. And if the interpersonal communication is beneficial, hence there are no doubts about benefits of reading.

What could be harmful in reading books? It is best if the question is put in this way. But there may be negatively focused people who ask: “And what is useful in this?” To answer these questions , in my opinion, we should answer the next ones: – What do we read? – How do we read? – Why do we read at all?

We read good and bad books, artistic, scientific and technical literature, detective stories and comics, love stories and masterpieces of world classics. Let’s start with the harm as it is not so obvious.

First, a poorly written book spoils the taste. Person, who never independently chooses literature and reads everything that have been advised him by “creators of the book fashion”, will call Paulo Coelho and Dan Brown as genius, while native classic literature collects dust on their bookcases, being abandoned in the high school after receiving “unsatisfactory” for the composition. Qualitatively written text, on the contrary, cultivates an aesthetic sense, develops the idea of ​​the frontiers of the art, promotes creating own style of speech and thought in the reader. Upon reading, the person learns something new, interesting (he would never read uninteresting), broadens mind, enriches vocabulary. Reading brings people aesthetic satisfaction, it is perhaps the most versatile and easy way of entertainment, as well as the most important part of the cultural and spiritual self improvement.


Second, the harm may be brought by addiction to one particular kind or genre of literature. Thus, the madness about fantasy, adding unreality to our already unstable world, turns the quite normal people in elves and goblins, who know the way to the Avalon much better than the way home. In other words people forget about the reality. They completely dive into the inner virtual world with the same forgetting about problem they have to deal in a real life.

Mind of intelligent people, with sharp perception of the world, smoothes book extremity, but cannot protect them from the romantic exaggeration and, as a result, frustration. This “syndrome” is still observed in philology students who are raised on the classics.

But I would like to talk about “book children” – those that grew up in a fantasy world. Sometimes I think that these children will be more difficult to live when they grow up. On the one hand, they know more than their peers, and somewhere it might help. But on the other hand, the child, cut off from the real life world by reading, is no better than a child addicted to video games.

World of “Book child” is ideal – it has noble heroes; it is always clear where is the good and the evil. Reading adult books, where the characters are displayed often very ambiguously, the child does not understand all tones, simply because many of his read experiences are not familiar for him, or because this historical novel is read before studying historical outline, within which everything happens.

And what happens? Faced with the daily reality of the world, the child is on the edge of destruction. And then collapses completely. Because there is no black and white, and generosity towards one person can easily be vile in relation to another. So extremely romantic teens, after reading romance novels, idealize their “love”, and they may face a serious problem.

On the other hand, a person brought up on books, has a clear understanding of the words “dignity” and “justice” than those who did not read at all.

However ,more often life brings some corrections to dreams that were retrieved from books and upon thinking the reader is not angry with the writer for the fact that he “tricked reader”. On the contrary he gratefully acknowledges that the book has launched in his mind the perpetual motion of inner work.

Now ,how do we read? In the train or bus, standing or lying, under the desk or on the desk, before sleep at home or in a hospital.

Since childhood, each of us has heard from adults the tips on how to maintain a perfect vision, but are these statements true of what is good and what is bad for our eyes, especially in term of reading. However, U.S. scientists have refuted the statement about the dangers of reading in low light. The findings, published in British Medical Journal, suggests that the vision does not suffer because of this. But we should not forget about things that may assist to faster tiredness of eyes such as long looking at the shiny objects, excessive reading of small written letters or while being on the move. Although, once again referring to the problem of ruined sight, I will recall the rules articulated at school. It is not recommended to read lying down, in the dark, on the run, in the car (especially if you’re driving).

It is much better if you:
- sit quietly in a chair
- the light falls on the left side, and
- the book is at a distance of at least 30 cm away from your eyes, and
- you will take a break from exercise or reading for the eyes every half an hour.

There is harm in the so-called “fluent” reading, “diagonal” reading, “backwards” reading, reading “from last page”, reading with missing descriptions and lyrical digressions. The simple example is when you are talking about your life, but a person who listens to you, from time to time, says: “Come on. Uninteresting. Next, come on! “. Insulting?

Once the author (it is better to deal with certified authors who know exactly how to write a good book) has found it necessary to include in the story or the song a particular scene or episode, we should comprehend the meaning of art and author’s concept. Otherwise (if the scenes and episodes are too nasty for you), it is better not to read this book.

In addition, fragmentary reading violates the logic of perception, puts the reader off the path that author led him carefully along and takes him away into very different distances, sometimes far from the meaning of the work. On the contrary, the ability to maintain attention to every detail of the work is beginning to bring great pleasure to read the text. A close reading reveals for the reader a “writer’s workshop”, from which he can learn and understand a true master himself.

In addition, the attention to detail brings to us behavioural culture .Typically, a thoughtful reader is attentive to everything in life. Gradually he learns to read not only books, but also the faces of people, the souls of trees, colours of the earth, views of cities.

And, Why do we read? There is only one rule: it is useful to read, for it is aimed onto education of the soul. All the rest are a tribute to our vanity, our little weaknesses, or just boredom. And, of course, the benefits can be brought only by those books, which are read with pleasure, as this is the case when the reader should not be forced.

Psychologists say that reading – an essential process in all stages of identity formation. From childhood, when parents read to the child, and to old age, when a person is going through personal crises and growing spiritually. Reading is invaluable in adolescence. Reading, teens not only train their memory, reasoning and other cognitive processes, they also develop emotionally and volitionally, learn to love, to forgive, to empathize, to assess and analyze the actions, to trace cause and effect relationships between events. It is therefore obvious benefit of books that can bring up and educate a coherent, harmonious personality.

In the process of reading a person uses both hemispheres of the brain. Reading (the work of the left hemisphere), people constantly envisions images and pictures of what is happening in the story (this is the work of the right hemisphere). Thus a man reads not only for fun but also trains and develops the ability of the brain.

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