Jaimie Lynch
ENG 110H3
After reading selections regarding reading and the written word, it has come to my attention that writing has been overtaken by the upcoming popularity of videos. Both Karen Swallow Prior and Cassie Werber express their viewpoints in their articles titled, “How Reading Makes Us More Human” (the Atlantic 21 June 2013), and, “Facebook is predicting the end of the written word” (Quartz Magazine 14 June 2016).
According to Karen Swallow Prior, reading is, “one of the most spiritual of all human activities”. She believes that reading is not only deciphering the meaning of a sentence consisting of a few words put together. She views reading as individual experiences. She believes that many people could read the same passage, but interpret it in different ways. Reading is not a mechanical act. Many people are challenged by it. Most people today read the words typed out on paper. Little do they know that they are missing the whole concept of reading. They are understanding the sentences, but neglecting to find their own spiritual meaning behind the letters.
Differently, Cassie Werber anticipates that videos will rapidly gain popularity as opposed to text. She describes the future of Facebook as being, “mobile” and most likely all video. Mendelsohn predicted that soon hereby statistics will show that writing is becoming, “all but obsolete, replaced by moving images and speech”. Mendelsohn believes that the best way to convey the most information possible in the shortest amount of time is through videos. Although videos are on the rise, they will also have to incorporate the aspect of Karen Swallow Prior. Videos will still contain the written word and the videographers will still have to go through the spiritual process of reading and interpreting the message they would like to convey throughout the video.
Personally, I think reading is not a spiritual experience for everyone. Throughout high school, I had numerous teachers who assigned an abundant amount of what were expected to be very engaging and inspirational novels. Reading was not always how I had wanted to spend my free time, especially if it were assigned to me. As an honor roll student, I would always complete the reading assignments each night and be prepared for class discussions the next day. My intentions when reading a novel was to complete the number of pages I had to read for that night. I had always interpreted the words just as they appeared on the paper. The experience that some writers and readers undergo while reading a book, novel, poem, or article are unique to that person’s mind. For myself, I cannot say that my interpretations were unique spiritual moments as Karen Swallow Prior describes, but I do believe that some readers do.
To my knowledge, I support the claim of both Karen Swallow Prior and Cassie Werber. I entirely believe that some readers have spiritual individual experiences when reading. Based on myself, I have to also support the ideas of Cassie Werber when she states that text is being overtaken by videos. As reading and writing are placed at high importance for some, others view videography as a more efficient way to convey a message.
Recent Comments