Issue38[Jet]第12次作业

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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: 517          TIME: 01:22:15         

With the worldwide rapid spread of televisions and videos, the reliance of books for knowledge would more or less be affected. However, does this mean that reading books is not as important as it once was? Although in some special areas television does have undeniable merits, I still tend to believe that books together with other means of papery magazines would continue to be the best approaches in acquiring knowledge of human.

Admittedly, in some special realm, television has more advantages than books, and could be more visual, vivid and rapid to impart information. For example, in broadcasting news, publicizing new achievements in science and engineering, television would be more rapid, and people could be equipped with great or interesting news taken place everyday without searching for various newspapers. In addition, some television channels presented some beautiful natural sights which could arouse people's devotion of the nature, and also some bothersome news, such as theft, robbery, and swindle etc, from which we can learn. Further more, we could learn histories from television by famous historian and critics' estimation of the great events and trends in the past. The use of books might not be so direct to acquire such knowledge. On the other hand, television acts better than books as a means of entertainment. Thus make television including videos one of the most important approaches in transmitting knowledge and entertaining people.

However, although television has so many merits, it doesn't mean that it will substitute for books. Each has its distinct advantages and thus they are not capable to win over each other. Television also has some shortages comparing with books. For example, television needs enormous supports of signal; it is not available for residents to watch TV for information where the correspondence facilities are lacking. In addition, in learning of abstract theories and philosophies, one need enough time to think deeply. But the rapid flowing of images on TV doesn't give audiences enough time. It is hard to imagine that one learn theories of Einstein and Platonism from television. Furthermore, television has some disadvantages which might mislead people's behaviors. For instance, most television channels run for commercial benefits, so there are scads of vulgar programs which cater to bad interests of some people rather than being responsible for all people, and they are full of advertisements and soap operas which cause couch potatoes too.

On the other hand, books have some other advantages that television couldn't come up. They are always portable, and could be read at any time and places. Moreover, they are readily selectable, and easily to be reread for deep comprehension. Books as the most useful medium for transmitting knowledge from the very past are becoming more and more mature. They affect the development of human beings in a long tern, as a motto said: "Books are the ladder of human progress".

To sum up, both of television and books have advantages respectively, we should make a combination of them in acquiring knowledge with books to be the best approach. What's more, they both need to be utilized properly to serve us best.