TV, Internet and Reading Novels and Short Stories

Just two decades ago, in my city, there was only one TV channel and was owned by the government. This TV channel used to broadcast program from 5pm to 11:30 pm. So, my TV viewing was mainly limited to three or four hours a day or sometimes did not watch any program at all. I still remember that those days, there were more time to read novels or short stories or even to read poems. Now, television occupies larger part of my life and lives of almost everyone I know.

When Internet came I became happy that at last I was doing much more reading than watching TV. However, soon I discovered that I was reading about sports, technology, business, politics or news but not that much of literature. Still, compared to average people, I read more novels and short stores. But at the same time, I understand that this internet has changed reading habit. Now, those people like me who are Bloggers are too much consumed with news of our own field. For example, I mainly write about South Asia and I try to read as much as possible about this field. On the other hand, those people who even just come to internet for fun and entertainment now read a lot about the field they like.

For example, if you are a fan of Hollywood celebrities then there are so many popular websites giving about their latest news and information that you really do not have any time for any other thing. When there is any scandal of any actress or actor and the video and pictures come out in internet then the popular websites give perhaps round the clock updates.

The best example is the recent scandal of Tiger Woods. Tiger Woods had relationships with many women and this matter came out and then many websites that jumped into the band wagon and tried to give extensive coverage to the scandal. They tried to do so because many people were interested in USA and when people are interested about something then that topic can bring more people and more money to blogs and websites.

The sad part is that there is no popular blog on literature in internet. You can find many popular blogs on any topic but not on a novel or short stories. Even there is no popular blog on William Shakespeare. The main reason for this absence of blogs on literature is that first of all, there is not a very big audience for it. It is natural that people are more interested about the scandals of Tiger Woods than the killing of King Scotland by Macbeth and his wife.

On the other hand, there are not too many products related to literature in internet that readers can sale. For example, almost all the great books of English literature have no copyright problem to put their texts in internet. So, you cannot sell them and when there are not a lot of products on something then there is not a lot of advertisers and there is not a lot of money.

The main reason that I do not or cannot give any time for this literature blog is this matter. If I give a lot of time for it then I can not earn money and I have to suffer in my daily life. So, it is a bad thing and I hope that this problem changes because no matter how much we are economically or technologically advanced, there is always a strong need for literature. A good novel or a good poem not only gives us a lot of entertainment but also helps us with improving our thinking ability. It makes us more humane and it gives us more peace.