Thing 20 Books 2.0

The internet is like creating a new language. Those that oppose it don’t know the language and those that are for it sees potential in it. Standardized tests are outdated. When I had taken my Anthropology of Race class I learned how the IQ test was bias. The point of the IQ test is to measure one’s intelligence. Its popular test today but not many know that its origins stem from racial and cultural bigotry. Most importantly everyone keeps asking how can one measure intelligence if they can’t even define what it is? It has been argued that the internet has single handedly ruined reading scores. But maybe like the IQ test we need to reevaluate or redefine standardized tests to incorporate the language of the internet. People haven’t stopped reading, how people read is what has changed. So the internet can’t really be blamed. The internet doesn’t use big fancy words like flabbergasted or befuddled. It uses simple concise English to get to the point. But in a sense we do that every day when we speak to people. People might say there are things in a book that one can’t learn from the internet. But no one learns things the same way as the person sitting next to them. It’s what makes the human race special because if we all thought the same way we’d probably still think the earth was at the center of the solar system. Some people are going to prefer the internet and some might be old fashion and prefers books, it’s mostly a personal preference when you think about it.

Surfing Reading Trails, Readerville and several other sites listed in thing 20 has what seems like an endless list of books. While I was on Reading Trails I did a search on Twilight and the results showed a long list of people who have the book in their list as well as other books related to that specific top. Got to love booklists! I never knew there were so many sites on the internet just for book related information. I wish someone told me about Book Swim! Renting college books for a low price would have saved me tons of money! (That sounded way to much like the Geico commercials…) No due dates, no late fees, free postage for return deliveries! Seriously why is it always the case that you learn about something that could have been useful to you after the fact? I’m betting that not many teens know about these sites either. I think that might also be one of the reasons why teens prefer the internet. They don’t always know about resources available to them. I bet if some of this information was posted somewhere on the library website or the library teen myspace site, teens would notice it a lot more since they spend so much time searching for things on the internet. I think I’m willing to start a movement to beg to get someone who’s willing to post free available resources because it would such a shame to let it go to waste.

Since I’ve started working in the library I had notice one thing that I never knew about and thought was the saddest thing in the world to me. While working in the children’s department parents would sometimes come up to me and say I need help finding a book and the audio version so they can hear the story while they read it because I don’t have time to read to them. If their parents don’t have time for them what’s stopping them from saying why not go on the internet because there is more on there to do to entertain them? I bet you can even get the internet to read to them too. The internet seems to have everything these days. The internet is part of everyday life but I don’t think that books are going to the way of the dodos. Books can still be useful.