2005 © Galina Barskaya. Image from BigStockPhoto.com.
Rumors of Written-Word Death Greatly exaggerated claims Eliot Van Buskirk on the Wired website.
A large-scale study by the University of San Diego and other research universities revealed what some of us have long suspected: We’re reading far more words than we used to as we adopt new technologies.
“Reading, which was in decline due to the growth of television, tripled from 1980 to 2008, because it is the overwhelmingly preferred way to receive words on the Internet,” found a University of San Diego study
Church leaders have rightly complained for years about the detrimental effects of television on the mind and about the decreasing ability of people to read and process verbal and written information. But the internet seems to be changing all that for the better.
Surveys are also showing that people are writing far more than they used to – albeit in short emails, status updates, texts and tweets. It is indeed a day of great Gospel opportunity. May the Word of the Lord have free course and be glorified (2 Thess. 3:1).