Bedeutung von Literatur im digitalen Zeitalter - illustriertes Englischreferat von Nina Süß

Yet, despite all these changes, literature remains as important as ever. In the following I will elaborate as to why I posit that literature remains just as indispensable in today's digital age as it was before.

First and foremost, literature has and still is a very valuable tool, which promotes one's critical thinking as well as developing a sense of empathy in form of learning to, for example, relate to characters in a book. Of course, one may argue that digital media such as video games or documentaries can just as well foster empathy and critical thinking, however, literature in the form of a book also improves a person's ability to imagine. To visualize scenarios, details and interpret a given information in their own way.

Be that as it may, the fact that in this day and age a person's attention span has significantly decreased raises quite a few concerns, such as literature becoming less appealing opposed to it's digital counterpart. Despite this, literature has ways to adapt to it's current day and age. A great example for that are e-books or audio books, which enables it to keep it's literary value.

Books serve a great and significant role in preservation of cultural and historical norms, as well as facts. It is a way for us to have an insight into lives that have been lived as far back as centuries ago. And of course nowadays we have digital archives and multimedia projects at our disposal, which serve a similar purpose, often in much more accessible formats. However, data can be deleted. A server could crash, or there could be a power outage. Books could be burnt or torn, yes, but books still bring the feel a personal connection to the one who wrote it.

Digitalizing every day life produces a noticable decline in reading habits among the younger generations, which may lead to books losing more and more relevance. To prevent that, schools, for example, could start to implement initiatives such as book clubs, or one could create online reading challenges, or gamified reading apps in order to reignite interest in books.

Literature has a unique way of letting a person enhance their language skills not only when speaking, but when reading or writing as well. This is amplified by the fact that one does not just have sounds to go on, but is able to read and properly engage with the words, making it much more likely for said person to genuinely remember and incorporate newly learned vocabulary in their everyday speech. While the use of digital tools like AI or language apps may provide a more practical and interactive way to improve your language skills, actively emerging yourself in the word and language itself may sometimes work better with actual books if the aim is long term remembrance.

Now, as inflation has surely taken a toll on us all, the concern may arise that books are simply too expensive to consider when compared to free or cheap digital alternatives. It is a valid concern as books cost a bit more to produce than a simple online, digital copy of it. Nevertheless, public libraries and free online book platforms like Project Gutenberg ensure accessibility to anyone who is interested in literature but is worried about the cost.

So, when we consider everything mentioned above, it becomes blatantly clear that literature is still just as relevant and important as it was centuries ago, and that we should not let a rapidly evolving digital age deter us from appreciating the values that literature brings.

Nina Süß (EF)