issue38 [SJTU-ETB6 10G]第六次作业

zhangjunhaoUID: 2276310

TOPIC: ISSUE38 - "In the age of television, reading books is not as important as it once was. People can learn as much by watching television as they can by reading books."
WORDS: 455          TIME: 00:45:00          DATE: 2007-8-7 15:41:01

In the era of rapid development of television, television as a new medium is playing a more and more important role in our quotidian life. However, with this trend, the importance of reading books is being threatened. In my opinion, reading books is by no means totally substituted by television.

Admittedly, television is playing an important role in our daily life nowadays. When faced with a competitive society, the people are always enduring high stress which makes them tired all the time. The television provides a good chance for them to relax and enjoy the amusement which may mean a luxury for the hurried people. And the television could also offer the opportunity for people to obtain variety of information. Furthermore, it even serves as a platform which makes the life of people more convenient, such as television shopping. Such television programmes advertise some certain commodities so that the audience could make telephone to buy the very one they favor. Then the post service is also provided for free. Those programmes similar to television shopping are much popular with the public who seek for high-quality life.

However, the television is playing a role as transmitting information more than that as imparting knowledge which is decided by the inherent features of television. First, what the audience of television really prefers is the vitality of the programmes. The vivid programmes with well-depicted scenes and beautiful sounds are more attractive to the public. Second, the information that the television conveys to the audience is much more immediate. The audience is able to absorb the information without processing through the brain even though some information is not necessarily correct. Third, the television programmes to a large extent are filled with an atmosphere of commerce. This feature essentially prevents the programmes from wasting a lot of time on extra things having nothing to do with commercial interests. For instance, in order to bring in the swordsmens novels of famous Chinese novelist Jin Yong to TV play series, the original novels have to be revised to satiate the standards for making TV play series. As a result, the audience could get nothing from it except joy.

Understandably, reading books is still the most important path to obtaining true knowledge. When reading a book, you experience absorbing, processing including imagination which serves as a symbol distinguishing human beings from other animals. Via reading books, you are acquainted with the past of history and the contemporary time of history. The history is being handed down from generation to generation through books. What's more, you can read books wherever you are because it is easy for you to take on.

To sum up, the television is a consequence of the rapid development of high technology. While we are sharing the benefits it bring us, reading book is always a best way to the systematic knowledge.