Analysis Of Literacy Debate: R U Really Reading? By Motoko Rich

Today’s youth spend countless hours on the internet for various reasons. Whether it is for research purposes, indulging in social media, watching videos, or playing games, reading is involved in some shape or form. Regardless of the content, reading online gives children certain abilities, such as expanding their vocabulary, adapting to different wordings and writing styles, identifying errors, understanding the material, and identifying the importance of details/imagery in their writing, that they may or may not be getting from books.
In the article Literacy Debate: R U Really Reading? written, or should I say typed, by
Motoko Rich, the author suggests that reading on the internet is less beneficial than that of reading books. Rich states,

Rich also shows some of the positive effects of online reading. He mentions that some experts say, “Reading five Web sites, an op-ed article and a blog post or two… can be more enriching than reading a book.” He later goes on to quote a couple of people saying that reading a book takes longer and that material online is shorter and gets to the point quicker. Mr. Spiro’s, from Michigan State, quote used by Rich in the article is, “It takes a long time to read a 400-page book… in a 10th of the time… [on the internet you can] cover a lot more of the topic from different points of view.” And also included in the article is a quote from Hunter, a young adult
Cazares 2 from Connecticut, says, “Online just gives you what you need, nothing more or less.” (Rich,
Literacy Debate, The New York Times). Reading books seems to be a thing of the past, thus thrusting online reading into the future and that is not necessarily a bad thing.
I do research every day and, quite frankly, about ninety percent (90%) of the things

Let’s not forget the fact that we have to read instructions to learn how to play, which in most cases the instructions are provided in the game rather than on a printed book, especially for computer games- played on the internet more often than not. Reading instructions is an important task because without them, a player will not know how to work the game. This forces, well, encourages, the player to read and examine the instructions carefully and thoroughly. Personally, I sometimes find myself having to read the instructions more than once to make sure I completely understand. I use reading skills that I consider at least average most of the time.
Rich also mentions in the article that a girl’s mother is not satisfied by the fact that her daughter would much rather read and write fan fiction- fictional stories made up by fans and published in order to let others read their own ending or spinoff of a cartoon, movie, book, game, etc. - on the internet than to read books (Rich, Literacy Debate, The New York Times). Reading fan fiction requires as much skill as reading an average book because fan fictions are stories