Why Read?

How many instant messages did you receive last night? How about text messages? Since text messages and IMing are very important, it pays to be able to read them, doesn’t it? Reading is something we often take for granted. Even though we all supposedly hate to read, we all use it a lot in our typical everyday lives. We use it to communicate and we use it to gain our teenage independence. And as much as we all want to deny it, we should read because it’ll help us to survive.

Living in our world today, communication is no longer calling someone on the phone or talking to them face to face. If you want to be able to communicate, you have to know how to read. If you want to contact someone, you text message them. Let’s admit it; it is a lot easier then actually having to speak to someone. I mean, Heaven forbid! E-mail and instant messaging also add to the numerous ways of non verbal communication. Although these various methods take away from teens’ face to face social skills, they also give them an incentive to read. If you want to be able to understand what your friend e-mailed you about Saturday night, then you have to be able to comprehend the letters on the screen. That would be reading. In English class, reading is such a pain, but we manage to read everyday in our social lives without a word of objection. If it is the freedom and independence that we seek from the teachers forcing us to read, then reading is actually one of the only ways to gain that independence. Reading is the way out.

Driving is probably one of the most important things on teenagers’ minds today. We want to drive to gain independence. We want to be able to go where we want when we want, and we want to be able to do it by ourselves. Well, in order to earn the right to drive, you have to take a written test. Yes, technology has made it so that most of these tests can be taken on the computer, but you still have to be able to read to comprehend the test. To truly gain independence and start on the road to adulthood, we all must be able to read. Your mom cannot read to you every job application or driving test that you take. And say you do get that driver’s license, you have to be able to read the road signs and understand directions in order to get where you want to go. To pay for that car, you’ll need a job. Filling out a job application requires reading and writing. Job interviews require acceptable speech and proper grammar. All of these skills come from being able to read. Reading doesn’t just apply to being able to pick up a book and understand it enough to pass the test. Even when you aren’t forced to read anymore, you’ll still need to do it. Face it, reading is forever.

In ten years, old, boring English teachers won’t be throwing classic novels at you anymore. You won’t be forced to read. Who knows, maybe you will become one of those old, boring English teachers passing out the boring American Literature. But as much as we all want to escape it, reading will always be something we will need. So we might as well get good at it now. We may not need it for completing a book report and probably not for passing an A.R. test, but until the day we die, we will always need reading and language skills. Getting a job, balancing check books, shopping, sending out wedding invitations, naming your first kid, this is all has to with language skills and word comprehension. It may not be in a book, but it is still reading, and it is not that bad. You probably hate it now, and maybe you will hate it forever, but in order to survive as an independent and full functioning human being, you need to be able to read.