Introduction
Throughout time, advancements in technology have changed the course of history. When paper was invented, it changed the way we as humans kept records and how information was spread. Now, thousands of years later in the digital age, you can’t make it one calendar year without a new technological advancement. Computers, televisions, cellular phones, and tablets continue to change the way we receive and send information. You would be hard-pressed to find a household in the United States that doesn’t own at least one television and one personal computer. One object may not be in every house, a bookshelf. Books, magazines, and newspapers are becoming more and more scarce. Why spend time to sit and read the newspaper or a magazine, when you can turn on the television and watch the News or stream a video clip of the News online? Why read a book, nonfiction or novel, when you can download books to your tablet or Kindle? How does this changing of the guard affect us as people and how we read?
A lot of people have researched this subject, and the results vary. Some found that the presence of TV and internet had no affect on knowledge and reading. In their paper, "The Internet As A Means Of Pseudo - Intellectual Formation?," Mihaela Badea and Diana Presada study the effects that the Internet has on students learning, particularly reading. They picked a Philology class of 50 students to study and made them fill out a questionnaire on a play. In the end, Badea and Presada report that they surprisingly, due to their predetermined mindset, found that if “used in a proper way,” the Internet can be just as reliable a means to obtain academic information. Also in their article, "The Impact Of Internet And Television Use On The Reading Habits And Practices Of College Students," Kouider Mokhtari, Carla Reichard, and Anne Gardner study the effects that the Internet and television have on reading in college students. The results showed
Cited: Badea, Mihaela, and Diana Presadă. "The Internet As A Means Of Pseudo - Intellectual Formation?." Petroleum - Gas University Of Ploiesti Bulletin, Educational Sciences Series 62.1A (2010): 114-120. Academic Search Complete. Web. 2 Oct. 2012. Birkerts, Sven. "Reading In A Digital Age: Notes On Why The Novel And The Internet Are Opposites, And Why The Latter Both Undermines The Former And Makes It More Necessary." American Scholar 79.2 (2010): 32-44. Academic Search Complete. Web. 2 Oct. 2012. Eden, Margaret B., and Eric T. Ofre. "Reading And Internet Use Activities Of Undergraduate Students Of The University Of Calabar, Calabar, Nigeria." African Journal Of Library, Archives & Information Science 20.1 (2010): 11-18. Academic Search Complete. Web. 2 Oct. 2012. Gambrell, Linda B. "Reading Literature, Reading Text, Reading The Internet: The Times They Are A 'changing." Reading Teacher 58.6 (2005): 588-591. Academic Search Complete. Web. 2 Oct. 2012. .Mokhtari, Kouider, Carla A. Reichard, and Anne Gardner. "The Impact Of Internet And Television Use On The Reading Habits And Practices Of College Students." Journal Of Adolescent & Adult Literacy 52.7 (2009): 609-619. Academic Search Complete. Web. 2 Oct. 2012.