Technology Replacing Books?

No one reads anymore. No one holds a book in their hands, becomes attached to the characters, lets themselves become completely submerged in a book... It's sad. I love to read and go outside and be in the sunlight whilst most of my other friends like to sit inside on the most beautiful days and play their Xbox's or PlayStation's or stalk people of Facebook. People don't realise how amazing it feels to hold a book in your hands, to become so attached to a character that you think that they are real or they don't appreciate how the author makes you feel like your in the story; experiencing everything that is happening in the book.

My friend said to me today


"Why would I read when I could play video games or go on Face book?"

This was a real shock for me as I would prefer to sit in the sunshine with a good book and some watermelon and read for hours than sit inside in a muggy house with coke and a headset on. The value of books is truly unappreciated. No one understands how reading transports you into a whole new world. People think that playing video games and sitting inside is transporting you into another world? That doesn't make sense to me. Sure you could visually see whats there but that's it. You can't see any more than what there already is. When you read there's nothing stopping you from imagining anything and everything that you want.

When you read the book is your reality. You don't notice what's happening around you. You only know whats happening in the book. You get drawn in and can't get back out until some one is ready to jump on you because you couldn't hear them. You were too busy worrying about what was going to happen next.

I believe that books are not only one of my favourite things ever but they are your escape. When your friends are fighting and your sick to death of it you pick up a book and read. When you parents are fighting you read your problems away. When you loose someone that you love you read their favourite book and realise why they loved it so much; the book related to them, said the same sorts of things that that person would say and was their escape route. Books can transport you away from your problems, troubles and griefs. They take you away from your problems; even for just a moment you forget everything else, forget about your friends problems, that your parents are fighting, that you lost someone. That all becomes irrelevant. Your happy for a moment and that's all that matters.

Technology has replaced this escape route. Now people feel like they don't have that escape because their lives are being based around their phones and iPad's and whatever other devices that they have. I'm not saying that I'm not guilty of this from time to time but normally my phone and laptop are tools that are there to help me not to entertain me. I use them everyday but everyday I manage to find plenty of time to come back to this escape and forget about everything else that is happening in the world.


~ Mockingjay On Fire