The place of books in society is now becoming less and less prevalent. In years gone by, it was feared that radio could be the end of books then it was considered that television would mean kids no longer read anything and finally the internet has come along and books have had a further decrease in popularity. While books are still being read, their popularity continues to dwindle and new reading devices like the iPod and Kindle threaten to further damage the numbers of people who like to read books, keeping them in shelving in their rooms. While many think that the replacement of books with electronic products will mean more readers, ultimately it will damage the attention spans of an already media-saturated public and lessen the number of people who are reading substantial, interesting works of fiction and non-fiction. In this day and age, the number of people with wire shelving filled with books is at an all time low.
The number of Americans who read books is staggeringly low and the number who choose to read difficult books is even less than that. In this modern age, we have been encouraged to believe that everything that feels good is good, and if something is challenging or difficult, this should be rejected. The effect of this in the short term is that we are having much more fun, but in the mid to long-term, we become dependent on these thrills and see them as all there is to life, instead of the deeper challenges that are out there on offer.
This can mainly be blamed on television, which has driven people away from the mental effort required from books, in imaging the characters and the things they do. Even radio required a part of the imagination to consider how the people look and act, and how the sound effects would look. Today in most television shows, the goal is to leave as little as possible to the imagination of the view. It is not only in terms of the visual aspects but in the area of character development. For a film or show to be successful, characters must be easily defined as good or bad, and only make alterations to their character that can be easily understood by the viewer.
The problem with this is that it creates a false representation of life. When we see every day that there are characters on shows easily definable as good and bad, we begin to believe this is the way life is, and forget that everyone at their heart has good intentions. If we're fooled by the TV shows, it is easy for us to be fooled by politicians telling us the world is full of terrorists waiting to kill us, and that we should support the good troops in their quest to battle these evil forces.
In order to understand the world in a more subtle way, it is probably worth looking past the superficial realities of television and exploring the deeper worlds of books. While some books are just as superficial as the worst television shows, it is well worth looking into quality writing that can go far deeper than any TV show would imagine.
Connor Sullivan recently purchased shelving online for a kitchen project he is working on. He also ordered wire shelving online to use in the basement for extra storage space.
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