Public Speaking Text : How Important Reading To Todays' Teenagers

             Today teenagers do not read as many books as a teenager even 10 or 20 years back used to. Why is it so? Is it because other forms of communication, learning and entertainment have taken over the ever popular “book” or is there some other reason? What do you think?

             Well, in my opinion, reading is very important to today’s teenagers as it not only provides them with entertainment, but also with knowledge. Nowadays, all teenagers ever do is hang out with their friends, laze around playing with their mobile phones or just glue themselves to a computer. They have no idea how reading can benefit us. To some teenagers, reading is probably a waste of time. So, for some books that have been made into movies, most teens would just wait for the benefits besides the obvious “increase our vocabulary” advantage. Did you know that reading also helps us relax and improve our concentration?

            Reading helps develop vital language skills and is needed in our school lives, as well as our adult lives. The ability to learn about new subjects and find helpful information on anything, be it academic research, depends on reading. Reading exposes us to proper grammar and phrasing. It enhances the development of our spoken language skills and our ability to express ourselves verbally.

As technology today is very advanced, most teenagers may not read from books very often. Instead, they would read up from the internet. Internet has made reading more and more a part of teenagers’ daily lives. Internet itself is an enormous source of new information and recreation.

            Next, reading provides teenagers with enjoyment. The more they read, the better they becomes at reading. The more enjoyable the things they read are, the more they will stick with them and develop the reading skills that they will need for full access to information In their adult lives. Therefore, reading should be viewed as a pleasurable activity - as a source of entertaining tales and useful and interesting factual information.

             For me, reading opens up our world and enriches our lives. Reading exposes us to the world around us and develops an understanding of and concern for the people around us. It also provides us with knowledge on today’s world and increases our factual knowledge about the world. Reading is important as it develops our vital language skills, provides us with entertainment, as well as opening up our world.

              Whenever you pick up a book and start reading it, all you do is concentrate on the story and nothing else. Thus, you forget whatever stress you had in the first place. This is also the reason why some people chose reading as a hobby - for relaxation purposes. Also, I believe reading improves our concentration, as we have to concentrate while we read or we would not catch the story at all! Therefore, reading trains our concentration, which helps us in our studies or whatever that we do.

Hence, I strongly feel that reading is important to today’s teenagers. Thank you.