Reading and New Media

Last Sunday, the pastor in my church discussed “Are we real Christians?” with us. His discussion related to the issue of people’s reducing reading impressed me a lot. Although most people said they are Christians in U.S., there are very few Christians completely read the whole bible. Except for reading bible, nowadays, people tend to do less and less reading. More and more people turned to the new media such as television and Internet. In my organizational communication class, our professor Stacey told us that based on some researches, people tend to believe what they hear from the media without any critical thinking. I think the reducing reading of people is a very realistic phenomenon. The increasing prevalence of the internet and new media influences the culture of our reading ability and even education. The ability to read is the most necessary competence in a modern society. In my opinion, media literacy is very important but being able to read still should be the core competence, which can enable other abilities. Nowadays, we have unconsidered support to the new media in all corners of life, especially in our educational system. Schools and even kindergartens are supplied with computers and networks. I think schools should balance the benefits and disadvantages of the Internet or other new media.