The television, invented in last century, has long been considered one of the greatest inventions in the modern history. It is difficult to ignore that TV, in today’s society, has become part of people’s lives as common as meals and bathes. Meanwhile, books—the traditional form of gaining knowledge and information, are now gradually losing its previous stage in people's daily lives. However, in regard to their function of informing and education, I insist that reading is the better way of learning compared to watching TV, as the former allows people to think carefully and provides more mobility and convenience.
Combined with acoustic and visual effect , TV programs are averagely more vividly and easier to understand than books. However, we all have this kind of experience: as we are reading a book , we can pause, go over the previous paragragh when we come to a abstruse part and ponder carefully which helps us understand the topic deeper and more detailedly, while I’ve never succeed ordering the TV program to pause once I feel confused by its content. Thus, as to learning, we get more detailed knowledge, better understanding of an issue by reading compared to watching TV programs. What's more, we participate more in reading than simply watching the television. take the comparison of reading novels and watching movie videos for example. a good film maker oftentimes tells you a story, while a excellent author of a novel usually absorbs you into his story by triggering your unlimited imagination.
Lastly, more often than not, nowadays, more and more TV programs intend not to inform valuable information but solely to entertain, like thrillers, soap operas, violent crime movies and so on. What can we expect to learn from these scenes? Or if we intend to learn something from the TV, we will probably spend a lot more time searching for the right channel than enjoying the program itself.