It is often said that the Internet’s creation in the nineteenth made easier the way in which people could learn, work and study. The use of computers and mobile phones was seen at first as a democratization of knowledge, culture, and books. However, I think that this primary ideology was totally wrong following the side effects and trajectory and use of these devices. Indeed. I do think that computers and mobile phones for communication have a negative effect on people’s reading and writing skills, especially for young people.
First, young people have been raised with mobiles and computers. The problem is that most of the content shared on computers and mobile phones, especially because of the use of social, are videos, images, and emoticons. For example, to get informed of the news, people used to communicate with others, write letters to people who were informed of the situation, or read newspapers before the Internet was created. Today, most -if not all young people are being informed by watching videos on the Internet and socials. As a result, we can attest that young people are getting used to a virtual world made of videos and images.
But not only are newspapers concerned, but also all kinds of information. Indeed, when young people, especially students, needed to find information for a school project they were confronted with what a lot of young people are “reluctant to” today: opening a book, an encyclopedia. Indeed, many young people are being disinterested in books as computers and mobiles are making on-web research easier and faster. Young people are, as a result, reading less and hoping to find quickly a piece of information instead of reading an entire article about it. For example, who reads an entire book about a country to communicate with someone from another country when they can just find a short article about the culture they are trying to know better?
Nevertheless, writing skills are also strictly damaged by computers and mobiles. Because we are more connected to people thanks to computers and mobiles, we increase the process of talking with everyone, everywhere, the fastest as it can be. Before, thanks to the use of letters, people had time to think about what they would write and how they would like their text to be perfectly spelled and well written. Not only letters but also phone calls would help people develop their writing skills as you could not use abbreviations and slang as people do every day by texting. A single image-a yellow face called a smiley- can replace dozens of words if not more. People are developing slang, image, videos, and GIF language instead of writing what they feel, think, and want to say in a text.
Also, vocal messages become a threat to reading and writing as these two skills are becoming useless in computers and mobile communication. In addition, creating a technology through which users of these devices are enabled to dictate a sentence that the mobile will write in a text makes people even more unskilled in writing and reading.
To conclude, the prominent use of mobiles and computers for communication has numerous negative effects on young people’s writing and reading skills. Indeed, it keeps them away from reading and especially writing because of vocal messages and the creation of slang. Communication becomes a way for people to tell what they have to say without thinking about what they are writing and saying.