People hold conflicting views about whether reading or watching TV in their leisure time helps them have a better imagination. From my perspective, I strongly agree with those who think that reading as a hobby is more beneficial for our creativity and imagination.
It is undeniable the fact that watching TV may stimulate viewers’ imaginations in certain aspects of life. The first point behind my belief is that TV usually uses various special effects or animations as well as astounding sound effects, which can spark viewers’ imaginations. These also encourage them to visualize and picture similar settings or scenarios in their minds. Nevertheless, the audience’s visualizations may be constrained by things that are only depicted on screen, leading to a lack of vision since they may tend to envision as producer’s visions rather than their independent thoughts. Another point that should be considered is that since many TV programs are usually broadcast on a fixed schedule; therefore, the imaginative experience when watching TV may be fleeting. As a result, this can disrupt the creative process of the audience.
On the other hand, I wholeheartedly believe that reading requires more thinking effort than watching TV programs for several reasons. Chief among these is that when reading books, readers often need to transform written texts into personal interpretations; therefore, it can foster creative thinking with fewer imaginative restrictions. For example, when watching a movie on TV, people usually have to experience numerous advertisement breaks which may have a devastating effect on their imaginations compared to reading where people do not have such experiences when they read a book. Undoubtedly, readers can have the freedom to enjoy and contemplate at their own speed. Another reason is that books provide a wide range of content diversity with cost-effective production. Unlike TV production, which is mainly restrained by budgets, book authors can depict any topic in detail based on their descriptive language only. For instance, publishing a book in America might cost around one to five million dollars, while producing a movie can cost up to hundreds of millions of dollars to make a great movie.
In conclusion, while it is undeniable that watching TV may bring several benefits to our imaginations due to its special effects and animations. However, I am still in favor of reading is much more advantageous for our creativity and thinking since it fosters viewers’ creative thinking along with enjoying reading flow at their preferred speed.