In the olden days people used to read fairy tales, story/history books, novels, etc. But now most books have been made into movies, and we are spending valuable time watching TV and surfing the net. This habit of ours is killing our reading habit, imagination, creativity and power of thinking. There may be many advantages to watching TV and surfing the net but in reference to reading habits it is definitely discouraging it.

Balram Khyungba:

There are two types of media — print and electronic. We see both these types vying to inform and entertain as many people as they can. Although influence of one type of media on the patrons of the other does exist, I think, it is not exactly a zero sum game.

One cannot get enough books to obtain up-to-date information especially if you wish do it sitting in the comfort of your house. Neither can one bask in the sun and watch TV or surf the Internet. Likewise, one cannot take their favourite TV programme or movie with them when they travel and enjoy it as soon as one finds some leisure time.

When electronic media like radio, television, etc came into existence, some actually thought that it would displace books and newspapers. Thanks to millions of bibliophiles, it didn’t happen.

Sharad Deep Silwal:

Television and the Internet discourage people’s reading habits. Nowadays people prefer to watch television and surf the net rather read books. Programmes on TV and the Internet have reduced the peoples reading habits. Visual presentation on TV easily influences people. Hence, are more attracted to the TV than they are to books. It takes a lot of time to read a book. But in no time at all people can gain the same amount of knowledge by watching TV and using the Internet.

Rashmi Nanu Dahal:

By reading, one can only be familiar with the incidents and the information that is in the book. But the television and the Internet provide both visual and verbal information. What one sees and hears is more effective than what one reads. It remains on our minds for a long time. Also, television and the Internet give the news first, only then is it printed on paper. Take live telecasting as an example. Only after the live telecast does the information and news get printed. There is not much eagerness and zeal to read what one has already watched on TV.

Swastiek Bajracharya:

Television and the Internet aid the reading habits. All television programmes and Internet sites are not bad. Some programmes give us various kinds of knowledge, which can help in our studies.

Yashasvi Pant:

Reading is fun and books are a medium of gaining knowledge. It is said that reading makes a real man. People have different tastes and books cater to the needs of all readers. Modern innovation has gifted us with television, Internet and many more things.

Because of these it is presumed that the reading habits of people are discouraged. But it is not. Due to time constraint people cannot spend as much time reading books. It is faster to surf the Internet to search for what they need and the Internet provides one with a wide variety of information in a short period of time.

The television is a visual medium of transferring knowledge. But it is not that books are not losing their value. The satisfaction gained by reading books cannot be gained through other mediums. As the Internet and other technologies

are quite expensive and new, they are not popular among the older generation and in rural area. Even

cities, people throng book fairs and libraries. Thus, television and Internet helps gain knowledge but does not affect the reading habits of people.

Dilip Dachhepati:

Personally speaking, television has throttled my reading habit and quietly killed my urge to write. Internet has turned me into a mindless, snobbish, ‘larger than life’ nincompoop who’d surf to find the name of his district than recall his second standard geography and complain loudly that the myths surrounding Saraswati Puja are not available online after being caught on the wrong foot by a semi-moderately informed peer.

As I have a busy, busy work life, all I do after I return home is switch on the box and feed on the sordid dramas that unfold on the family channels and muse on the absence of their romance, extramarital subplots and petty intrigue in my family life. In any case, I am too tired to be good for much else.

I have also turned into a hopeless couch potato as I am lazy and don’t get much exercise from my sedentary lifestyle. Why, I can barely commute to office in a cab without feeling bullied by the illiterate, male chauvinistic cabbie! Crowds, traffic and noisy street life scare me after I emerge from the pretty decor of the K soap drawing rooms and the colour and squalor of poverty downtown is almost always too much for my soft and refined sensibilities. I’d book all my commutes and eatings out on my computer from the safety and comfort of my living room sofa if that were possible in this part of the world. Oh how I wish I were somewhere else.

Kabir Shrestha: