Free Thinker
What if it was possible to break these chains that bind our minds? Technology enables one to access any and all information with the click of a few buttons. However, it keeps us from accessing and using our own intelligence to solve problems. The earlier we are introduced to technology, the more reliant we will become on it. Luckily, there is a remedy for technology’s negative effects on learning and development: reading!
Over the last fifty years, studies have shown that the number of words used by teenagers in conversation have decreased on average of about 15,000 words. This drastic change in language can be related to technology’s influence on childhood development. By placing a child in front of a TV screen, the brain is absorbing very limited knowledge because the brain is not being forced to work. Instead, the brain becomes a passive observer instead of an active participant. However, by reading to children from early ages, their brains are forced to engage with the story. Reading enhances focus, improves vocabulary and grammar skills, enables academic excellence, and develops imagination.
The brain is often described as a muscle; one needs to continuously exercise it in order for it to grow stronger. Reading is one of the simplest forms of exercising the brain. In our culture, conversational English has become diluted; reading helps a person develop better grammar and communication skills. Children excel at recognizing patterns and they often follow the examples set before them. When reading, they will pick up grammatical structure and more developed language skills as their brain processes what it is decoding. By remaining committed to reading a story, their brains are forced to focus on the task at hand, which develops discipline. Through practice, all of these qualities, as they are developed, improve academic excellence.
Reading does not only influence academia, but it promotes empathy and furthers imagination. It has been proven that the human brain loves stories because, as we read, our brain believes that we are a part of the story that is unfolding in the pages before us. This is why we may cry if a beloved character in a novel dies because we feel the pain of that loss as if we are living as a part of the story. These personal reactions allow us to relate to the novel itself and help us to develop empathy. Reading has the ability to transport us across galaxies and dimensions, and into the hearts and minds of others. This expansive way of thinking helps us to enhance imagination.
Technology cannot be avoided; it is a major part of our everyday lives today. Technology is also behind many of the major advancements in science and medicine. Despite all of its negative effects on early development, it has become a necessary part of life. However, all good things in moderation. We must limit our screen time and instead enforce more time with books. Reading, like anything, is more effective the earlier it is introduced because it is through reading that our minds expand, and gain experience as well as inner knowledge. So it poses the question, can we free our minds from the wires that bind us to technology and its limitations? We believe that reading is the key to freeing our minds from these chains and creating a generation of freethinkers.
