These days kids are inundated with videos and television programming, even in schools. Often this time spent in front of a screen comes at the expense of reading books. This is difficult to justify. While TV and movies can be insightful, I would argue that reading has much greater educational value.
Of course, how educational a text or a video is depends heavily on its content, which can vary widely. But in general, a person who is reading will be engaging with a more informational source than somebody who is watching TV or a movie. This is partly because video is best for telling stories, and stories are less likely to be truthful than simple fact. Take, for example, historical films such as Lincoln, a large Hollywood movie about the U.S. president Lincoln. The movie tried to tell a historically accurate story, but it was also meant to entertain the audience. The level of drama in that movie probably does not accurately reflect Lincoln’s actual daily life. A written biography of the man, on the other hand, can better clarify between what only might be true and what definitely is true.
But it’s not only the content of a book or movie that influences what the audience learns. The audience themselves must think about the information and remember it later in order to really grow. And in that way, text is again superior to video. Watching TV or a movie doesn’t require you to engage with the content. My boyfriend, for instance, will put on a television show while he cleans. Even if the show is a scientific documentary, he is not really focusing on the information he might learn. If he instead were reading a book, he would be forced to think about it, because reading requires more mental work.
Although both forms of entertainment can be educational, reading is generally better for developing the brain, both because of the material itself and because of the way we interact with it. Personally, I’m happy to do both, but if I want to feel like I’m growing as a person, I will pick up a book.