Computers Taking over Books Response to Anne Prolux

Visal Gallapaththi

Ms. Gray

ENG3U1

March 7th 2008

Flipping The Screen

Half a century ago, people used books for everything related to education. In fact, the human’s

best source of knowledge and education was the book. If you wanted to look up a recipe, you opened a

book. If you wanted to learn how to fix the radio on your car you opened a book called the manual. If

you wanted to know Black beard’s real name you will have to visit the library and go through hundreds

of encyclopaedia pages before finding what you wanted. Now in the 21st century, all you need is a

computer with an Internet connection and the whole world is just a click away. Slowly the computer has

replaced the book in almost every way.

Computers are much better than books because a modern computer can hold a billion

times more information than the average 500-page book. If you wanted to do research about Martin

Luther King Jr. It would take you at least an hour just to find the right book. Where as using a computer,

you can find the same information in less than 5 minutes. Many people use the internet as a dictionary.

finding definitions, this way only takes the time to type the word. A laptop computer equal to the size

and weight of a book holds data about any topic you can think of. A book only covers a specific topic. A

computer can hold much more types of data than a book. When you carry one computer, you are

carrying a hundred thousand books.

In her essay, Proulx mentions an airplane is the best place to read a book and asks, “What are

planes but giant flying reading rooms?” Many people use their laptops or the on board entertainment

system on a plane rather than reading a book. But, from my experience all I seen on planes is people

sleeping, people watching movies and people working on their computers. I have only seen one person

reading a book- a 90-year-old who probably doesn’t know what computers are. Proulx also says we can

judge what the person is like and their interests by looking at their books. We can only judge a person

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up to some extent when we look at their books. If we look at their software and files, we can see what

they are interested in, and what kind of job they are doing, you can even know the type of music the

person listens to.

In her essay, Anne Proulx says, “No one is going to read a novel on a twitchy little screen”. If this