Technology and Reading Skills or Reading Habits

The impact of certain forms of technology on reading skills or reading habits
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The impact of certain forms of technology on reading skills or reading habits
In recent times, there has been some debate regarding the negative impact that technology could have over students’ habits of reading. Some argue supporting this and assert that the internet is currently being utilized to seek information and that the habit of careful and slow reading for understanding is certainly declining. Technology has been significantly integrated into people’s lives over the last few decades. The greatest impact of technology is perhaps on the transfer of information. The usual, conventional method that is used to transfer information – via printed documents – has started to be replaced by online data. Inevitably, this change has affected the way people read (Loan, 2012). This paper provides an exhaustive discussion of the impact that certain types of technology have on reading skills or reading habits.
Technology is defined as scientific knowledge that is applied for practical purposes, particularly in solving problems or inventing helpful tools (William, 2011). Reading is an imperative tool for lasting and lifelong learning. It is actually essential for everybody to develop the rudiments and culture of reading since reading skills are very important in life. Reading is recognized as the springboard of any literacy program as it gives students an active place and puts them at the centre of the curriculum and pedagogy (Shen, 2010). In essence, reading is an indispensable and imperative equipment for learning and acquisition of diverse experiences and skills that an individual actually requires in order to develop a satisfactory personal life. Akarsu and Danyemez (2014) noted that learners need to develop positive attitudes toward reading of books as a lasting and life-long learning experience.
In higher learning environments, reading is valued as an imperative academic language skill for foreign and second language learners. Through learning, learners get to learn new information and become more proficient in their subject matters (Noor, 2011). People who have good reading habits have the opportunity of widening their mental horizons and multiplying their opportunities (Loan, 2012). In the current technologically changing and developing world, reading is of major importance in teaching people how they can cope with new knowledge. Reading increases quality of life, creates culture, and makes cultural heritage available (Loan, 2012).
As the scores of students in international reading skill tests are falling, a lot of opinions have attributed this fall to the web searching exercise. In essence, web searching exercise is thought to be the cause of decreased literacy levels, and of shortening students’ attention span. It is also thought as being the cause of devastating a long-standing culture of growing up with the books (Akarsu & Danyemez, 2014). It is notable that there lacks convincing evidence to show that web searches have resulted in decreased attention spans among learners just as there is conclusive evidence supporting the assertion that TV surfing, textin...