Social media proliferated with the advent of the internet. As more web content was created, it marked the onset of digital reading. As digital reading tools like e-readers and apps were developed, we saw a gradual demise of paperbound books. The percentage of 9 to 17-year-olds who preferred paper books over ebooks decreased from 66% in 2010 to 58% in 2012 (Alter, 2014). There is a distinct disjunction between paper book reading and web-reading. With copious information found in the web, we inadvertently scan for details rather than reading the text analytically. This in turn clouds our aptitude to judge and formulate opinions. Moreover, websites are designed to allure readers with their assiduously placed layout. The layout is designed with the consideration of the following factors (How People Read on the Web: The Eyetracking Evidence, n.d): “ - Gaze plots (dots to indicate points where a person’s eyes focus) - Heat maps (color-coded visualizations of where many people look) - Screenshot examples - Graphs
ing Evidence, n.d). Thus, in a remote way, we are manipulated by our scanning habits: we see and read what the corporate syndicates what us to view. Technological gadgets whose primary or auxiliary function is messaging have also morphed our reading. It has been disclosed that text messages are the most popularly read material by children outside their classroom (Vasagar, 2012). The impediment with such reading is that young people switch unconsciously to using abbreviated terms and not the correct linguistic words. The spontaneous change to adapt into the various domains of the digital space is called “codeswitch” (Levinson, 2013). Code-switching is difficult and might cause kids to be overcome by lassitude, doubt and might distract them (Levinson, 2013).
Education System
Dwindling reading rates egged renowned authors and illustrators of children’s books to sign a letter to President Barack Obama stating that extensive “standardized testing” in schools has caused our children to “lose their love of books” (Tobar, 2013). The letter also asserted that public school students consecrated much of their time for test-preparation that they The above mentioned factors are determined after are bereft of time to read books that invigorate their intensive analysis of the scanning patterns of people imagination (Tobar, 2013). when they read web content using eye-tracking techFurthermore, it is observed that as a child’s age innology (How People Read on the Web: The Eyetrackcrease, the amount of homework given to that stu64 | ZEALOUSNESS MAGAZINE | Winter / Spring 2017