Maria Miller

Even as little as 5 years ago, the idea of reading a book was completely different than it is now. With the rise of electronic reading devices like the Kindle, the very experience of reading has changed. Reading books on electronic devices may seem like a good idea, especially in this era in which it seems every aspect of the modern world has been poked by the finger of technology. But is this conversion from reading tangible hardbacks to electronic e-books a good thing, or are we throwing away the benefits of the most ancient intelligent pastime?

Think back - way back - before you knew the alphabet. You remember plopping in your mother's lap with a seemingly oversized children's book titled Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown. Coming back? You hear the sound of your mom's voice reading the rhymes, joined with the sounds of the paper shuffling as you press your clumsy little fingers to the corners of the pages. You ask questions about the fireplace, the full moon, and the picture frames in the cozy scene painted on the paper. Eventually you memorize the words, and when you read the book all by yourself, you end up reciting the entire book without turning a page. Even the smell of the book sticks with you.

This is just one example of a fond memory with reading. Whether you love it or you hate it, the feelings associated with reading are ingrained so strongly within us that we cannot lose them. Reading makes us feel calm; think about it, where do you go to study without interruption? The library.

Reading tangible books also causes us to retain information - numerous studies have shown that there are strong connections between memory and the senses. Michael Hopkin of Nature News states: "a single smell or sound has the power to conjure up entire scenes from the past." If senses connect to memory, it's more likely that we remember something when there are senses involved.

So if that's true, then we can judge why Goodnight Moon made such an impact. In reading that book, we touched, saw, smelled and heard - the whole experience was sensory-saturated. If Goodnight Moon were read to us on an iPad, we would have lost all of those sensory feelings, therefore we may not have retained the initial building blocks of comprehension so crucial in reading... we may not have even remembered reading it at all.

Reading has a vast and interconnected history that has lasted since the beginning of time (okay, maybe the printing press). Yet in this time, we are so focused as a society to move to bigger and better things that we don't stop to consider the consequences of the changes we make. If we lose reading, we may not retain the fundamental information necessary to be successful later in life.