Mit Sandru's Blog - Posts Tagged "read"
Read or listen to a book
Reading helps you become more informed, knowledgeable, smarter, and improves your communication skills, verbal or written. But with so many demands in your life when do you find the time to read a book? Most of us work, and it usual takes half of the 24 hours day; wake up at 6 AM come home at 6 PM, on average. All of us have to sleep, which should be 8 hours, if you’re lucky. Four precious hours left for chores, family, friends and TV. For a reading person TV is of questionable value, but when you’re exhausted TV is the “entertainment” of last resort. Then, when can anyone find time to read?
How about listening to audio books? Now, for the literati elite, listening to a book is sacrilege, almost in the same category as watching a movie instead of reading the book. A book is meant to be read, savored, and fantasied in your mind. True, but seeing is not the only sensory/input channel we posses. We all talk and we remember, most of the time, what was said, even on Radio or TV. Listening to an audio book is the same.
When I was employed I had no time to read. Until I realized that there was a time in the day when I did things automatically, like commuting to work. Living in Southern California I had no choice but drive to work, and during that time I listened to news or music; same news, same music over and over everyday. What a waste of time, until I found audio books. At first it was awkward to listen intently and drive, but in a few days I could listen and drive without any problems. My round trip commute took two hours, and besides listening to hundreds of books over the years the traffic never bothered me again. I looked forward to my one hour to go to work and one hour to come back home in the company of a good story. And I remember all the books I listened to. One time I looked for Steven Kings’ book 11/22/63 to lend to my sister and couldn’t find it. I didn’t read the book, I listened to it, but I thought I read it. To me it made no difference between reading or listening, the absorption was the same.
An audio book can cost more than a paper book. But you can subscribe to an audio-books club, such as "Audible" and listen to your heart’s desire. Put your time to good use, read or listen to a book, be that if you drive, or ride the subway or bus.
Reading is good for you.
How about listening to audio books? Now, for the literati elite, listening to a book is sacrilege, almost in the same category as watching a movie instead of reading the book. A book is meant to be read, savored, and fantasied in your mind. True, but seeing is not the only sensory/input channel we posses. We all talk and we remember, most of the time, what was said, even on Radio or TV. Listening to an audio book is the same.
When I was employed I had no time to read. Until I realized that there was a time in the day when I did things automatically, like commuting to work. Living in Southern California I had no choice but drive to work, and during that time I listened to news or music; same news, same music over and over everyday. What a waste of time, until I found audio books. At first it was awkward to listen intently and drive, but in a few days I could listen and drive without any problems. My round trip commute took two hours, and besides listening to hundreds of books over the years the traffic never bothered me again. I looked forward to my one hour to go to work and one hour to come back home in the company of a good story. And I remember all the books I listened to. One time I looked for Steven Kings’ book 11/22/63 to lend to my sister and couldn’t find it. I didn’t read the book, I listened to it, but I thought I read it. To me it made no difference between reading or listening, the absorption was the same.
An audio book can cost more than a paper book. But you can subscribe to an audio-books club, such as "Audible" and listen to your heart’s desire. Put your time to good use, read or listen to a book, be that if you drive, or ride the subway or bus.
Reading is good for you.
What will happen to reading and writing?
I found a quote saying, “We live in an era of smart phones and stupid people.” Maybe ignorant I'd say.
However there is a point to this. I don’t know about you but when I was a kid I learned my multiplication table by heart. And I still remember how much is 2 x 2. Along the way in the seventies the electronic calculators became affordable and everyone began using them. Why learn multiplications? It is easier to push buttons, on a smart phone today.
So, back to reading. By far, most of the information is written and most people need to know how to read to function. And thanks to texting, people still know how to read, although it may say: WTF DGMW IMNSHO THIS IS NYOB. 4 which u’ll need a dictionary.
The reading transformations happened because of technology, which will continue to advance and affect how we read. In my opinion we'll go back to the pre-written era in history. Our ancestors communicated well without knowing how to write, but only over short distances. For long distances the written word was necessary. But what will happen when you can speak into the smart phone and it’s converted into text (text is simpler to transmit) and the recipient receives text, which is converted back to spoken words. This technology exists already. I wrote books by dictating to my computer. And listened to emails read by the computer.
However what will happen when the technology will be so good that you’ll not be able to distinguish between machine voice and human voice. Or the machine will understand languages easily, regardless of idioms, slang, or accent. My Amazon Alexa understands me well, after a little training. As a matter of fact it understood my wife when she yelled at me to lower the volume when I was listening to Pink Floyd too loud. Alexa shut down. Even Alexa obeys my wife.
Writing and reading will not go away soon, but reading may fall in disuse, and the technology will replace the reading skill. In that case all books may become audio books, and we’ll return to the telling of stories, again. No cave, no fire, just smart phone and ear buds.
But why stop here? What if the technology assisted by A.I. could transform a written book into a movie? YouTube civilization I'd say.
However there is a point to this. I don’t know about you but when I was a kid I learned my multiplication table by heart. And I still remember how much is 2 x 2. Along the way in the seventies the electronic calculators became affordable and everyone began using them. Why learn multiplications? It is easier to push buttons, on a smart phone today.
So, back to reading. By far, most of the information is written and most people need to know how to read to function. And thanks to texting, people still know how to read, although it may say: WTF DGMW IMNSHO THIS IS NYOB. 4 which u’ll need a dictionary.
The reading transformations happened because of technology, which will continue to advance and affect how we read. In my opinion we'll go back to the pre-written era in history. Our ancestors communicated well without knowing how to write, but only over short distances. For long distances the written word was necessary. But what will happen when you can speak into the smart phone and it’s converted into text (text is simpler to transmit) and the recipient receives text, which is converted back to spoken words. This technology exists already. I wrote books by dictating to my computer. And listened to emails read by the computer.
However what will happen when the technology will be so good that you’ll not be able to distinguish between machine voice and human voice. Or the machine will understand languages easily, regardless of idioms, slang, or accent. My Amazon Alexa understands me well, after a little training. As a matter of fact it understood my wife when she yelled at me to lower the volume when I was listening to Pink Floyd too loud. Alexa shut down. Even Alexa obeys my wife.
Writing and reading will not go away soon, but reading may fall in disuse, and the technology will replace the reading skill. In that case all books may become audio books, and we’ll return to the telling of stories, again. No cave, no fire, just smart phone and ear buds.
But why stop here? What if the technology assisted by A.I. could transform a written book into a movie? YouTube civilization I'd say.
