Reading books/periodicals vs. using electronic media (TV, radio, Internet): do children/people read less and less and is the trend dangerous?

With the rise of technological developments , the lifestyle of the people has also changed . Changes on the preference of electronic media over static media are becoming more and more apparent . Gone are the days when people would rush to the nearest newsstand to get their morning dose of headlines or when students would reach for their needed books on the top shelves of the library . With the new age of digital information headlines can be read over the internet in real time and encyclopedias in CD format can be searched with a few

clicks on the keyboard

The Rise of Electronic Media

It was in the year 1960s when Marshall McLuhan delivered his famous line , the medium is the message ' During these years , television is one of the important breakthroughs both in the field of technology and communication . McLuhan emphasizes the idea that with the dawn of the electronic media , the medium of the information being relayed has a greater impact than the content of the material itself and that the linking of electronic information media would create an interconnected global village ( Marshall McLuhan . He argues that the use of television , radio and internet has as much effect , if not more , as the use of print to disseminate information . According to him , the difference depends on how the audience takes in these messages from these materials . On one hand there is printed material wherein the reader takes in the information in a linear manner and this encourages logical thinking . On the other hand there is electronic media wherein the reader or viewer is allowed to experience the information all at once (Lievrouw . For example , the television feeds to the auditory and visual senses of the viewer at the same time

Rapid developments in the culture of communications speeded up during the turn of the 19th century as transportation , like the railway system and other forms of communication , like the telegraph , telephone and radio rapidly emerged . By the turn of the 20th century , motion pictures became more advanced as motor cars and airplanes sprang up in the field of transportation (Briggs

Generation M

On a study made by Rideout , Roberts , and Foehr in the year 2005 , they targeted the impact of media on the lifestyle of today 's generation . It contains 15 key findings all related to media and the children 's response to this wave of digital advancement

According to the study , from 1999 to 2005 , there has been a little change on the abundance of these devices has grown . The number of households with cable or satellite TVs , with subscriptions to premium TV channels , with more than one DVD players , and with multiple game consoles has increased . Also , with the new softwares developed for computer consoles 8- to 18-year-olds have more things to do with the hardware (Figure 1 More importantly , all these gadgets and privileges have moved from the house 's common room to the young people 's bedroom

While the number of hours a day young people...