The Essentiality of Reading by Daniel

The Essentiality of Reading by Daniel - March 2017 Scholarship Essay

In today’s society it is an unfortunate fact that most young people tend to avoid reading. Not only do they hold apathy toward the idea of reading, but they also hold a disdain for reading. As a young person myself, I can understand some of the sentiments held by my peers regarding reading. When books are given as assignments, reading feels like a chore. Sometimes, it is difficult to find an enjoyable book, whereas it is considerably easy to find enjoyment out of a movie, television show, or video game. Many have become so accustomed to these forms of entertainment, that reading has no appeal. However, this decline in reading among young people is not only unfortunate, but it is also quite disturbing. Young people fail to realize the importance of reading in their lives as well as society as a whole. As an avid lover of fiction across all entertainment media, I would want to give a speech to a school-wide audience about the essentiality of reading literature in today’s youth.
Regardless of whether it is fiction, non-fiction, biography, or whatever format, books provide readers with a plethora of subliminal benefits. When someone reads very frequently, they expose themselves to a variety of different vocabulary and linguistic techniques. This can subconsciously transform and improve a person’s linguistic tendencies. Exposure to various arrangements of words can allow a person to develop their own tactics for expressing themselves, which can improve their conversational, rhetorical, and even comedic skills. The third of which stems also from exposure to different situations across diverse stories, therefore gaining a more thorough understanding of literary techniques such as irony. The diversity of stories which a reader takes in can also expand their imaginative abilities. Reading stories with highly detailed, vivid settings can increase a person’s ability to visualize places and characters within their mind. Their ability to imagine the way characters and settings appear can also lead to an increase in creative ability. Reading in general acts as an exercise of the mind, enhancing their abilities, usually without it even being recognized.
Books also operate as an immensely valuable platform for the discussion of ideas, especially in fiction. By reading, people not only enhance their linguistic capabilities, but they also partake in the exchange of different ideas and philosophies. The majority of fiction books contain an overarching philosophical idea that the author communicates within a contrived story. Books provide a very open canvas for communicating such ideas, and therefore it is important that the medium remains alive and well. While movies, television, and video games also have the capability to express different philosophical ideas, they all have a defined limit. Films are limited to a certain number of hours, television a certain number of episodes, and video games a certain amount of data. With books, an author is allowed to take up as many pages are necessary to portray their tale. Some critically acclaimed books are only around 100 pages, some are over 1000 pages. Regardless of the length, it eliminates the conventional limits that put on other media. Also, since books are not audiovisual, and therefore are not dependent upon time intervals, they can be accessed at the reader’s ease, giving them control over pacing. Likewise, the depth and pace at which a person reads will contribute to their understanding of what a book is trying to express. In addition, the dependence on imagination over supplied visuals gives a story an increased amount of interpretability, which in turn leads to further discussion.
Written stories are colossally important to our society. They have existed since antiquity, and it is important that they continue to be read. While other entertainment media have their merit, books possess capabilities that other media cannot match up to. They are unlimited, and therefore invaluable. It is important that young people realize the benefits of reading, and that they seek to obtain them. Above all, however, it is important that they continue the flow of ideas in our society, as it will keep their minds and the minds of others open.