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'The greatest giIt is the passion Ior reading.
It is cheap, it consoles, it distracts, it excites,
it gives you knowledge oI the world and experience oI a wide kind.
It is a moral illumination. Elizabeth Hardwick


Reading is a task that we've historically associated with printed materials. Novels, textbooks,
reference manuals, magazines, newspapers, journals, articles, poems, short stories... all of these
great documents were historically printed and distributed on pieces of paper, bound or loose, for
centuries. The invention of the printing press rivals the impact of the steam engine on advancing our
world and disseminating knowledge to the masses.
Although printed media still commands significant sales, you can read many of the same materials
on-line via the World Wide Web. Books, traditional magazines, and journals are now distributed
electronically. Blogs and other information resources (e.g. Wikipedia) are easily accessible, and
searchable, on-line. There's plenty of material out there to read on paper and on computer screens.
The proliferation of video games, new television channels, and on-line games, along with Web
surfing, might have had a negative impact on reading. The nternet did have an impact on reading,
The effect of the Internet on reading habits
The internet has changed the world in an incalculable number of ways. t has changed the way that
people communicate, the way that business is done, and the way that information is shared and
received. The internet has also had a great effect on people's reading habits, as it has changed the
way that people expect to receive both information and entertainment.
The internet is a great method for sharing and receiving large amounts of information very quickly.
Nearly everyone who uses the internet has learned to process information quickly and to expect that
information in a concise, easy to digest format. As the internet becomes the main platform from
which many people get their information, they have come to expect that even information that is not
on the internet be presented in this manner.
Reading habits, then, have shifted as those who write for publications such as newspapers and
magazines have changed some of their formatting to compete with this new, concise manner of
writing. People no longer read long, informational articles and essays, but may simply skim through
to find the pertinent information or the information that is most interesting to them.
The shift in reading habits that has been caused by the internet does not only affect non-fiction and
factual writing, however. As people become more accustomed to reading only short blurbs, even in
instant messages or one-line emails, their overall attention span for words is changing. This means
that even their attention span for novels and longer literary pursuits is waning. People who can find
amusement from a few one-liners on a website or from a two minute Youtube video may not find it
worth the effort to pick up a full length novel and read it from cover to cover.
The internet is a wonderful resource for many things, and it has allowed people all over the world to
become more connected to each other. However, with its rapid speed, mentality of instant
gratification, and its unique format, the internet has had a detrimental effect on the reading habits of
an entire generation. The generation that grew up with the internet has an attention span that is
conditioned to eschew any work of writing that requires a close, analytical read, or a long investment
of time. The effect of the internet on reading habits cannot be ignored as the internet itself becomes
more accessible to more people each day.