Let’s start by internalizing a question, answer it with all the sincerity in the world: when was the last time you started reading a text, from the beginning to the end, without getting tired, without getting distracted by banal things, without interrupting your reading and without the urgent need to move on to another activity?
The above question, as simple as it may seem, is quite revealing as it exposes the most worrying contemporary trends: the Internet and new technologies are creating a new form of illiteracy.
That is to say, people know how to read, but they hardly keep their attention while reading . This is why they neither understand nor retain the ideas, let alone feel the emotion of the literary work in question.
And the fact is that this verb, to read, has undergone an evident transformation over time. Well, long before the immediacy of the Internet came into our lives, this practice was carried out in silence and generally in solitude, but today? Well, today the situation is very different.
Silence has been replaced by a constant noise, we are not talking about the noise of sirens passing through the streets or loud music, no, that noise is called: distraction. And the loneliness? It must be said that it has been replaced by a particular presence: social networks, specialists in interrupting every moment of our daily lives.
Reading deeply is a thing of the past What’s going on?
As a sign of this unavoidable reality, many school education teachers have expressed their concern. Young people are unable to keep their attention on a task, as they live immersed in other realities: those provided by new technologies and social networks.
The Guardian newspaper, for example, shares the experience of Mark Edmunson, professor of English literature:
“Students avoid iconic works of the 19th and 20th centuries because they don’t have the patience to read deeply. There is a ‘cognitive impatience’ that stands between the student’s mind and the reception of the literary work.”
Meanwhile, Ziming Liu of San Jose State University (California) conducted a study on a practice known as skimmimg (skimming), the result was:
“Students now are adept at ‘skimming’ texts. this, for the sole purpose of looking up terms they consider relevant to promptly move on to another activity.”
The most worrying thing is, then, that in an era known as the information age, the new generations just prefer to live without giving it the power it deserves, that is , reading, which is ultimately what allows them to acquire new knowledge.
Don’t go away! you can read another article: Digital 100% We introduce you to the Alpha generation, the children of millennials!
