It may not seem like it now, but in a few days most of us are going to have more time than we know what to do with. After we all sleep for a week straight, that is.

During times like these, the remote control is really tempting. But we should leave it alone every once in a while and do something more productive with our time.

Like read a book.

The thing is, television has some inherent problems when used as a means of getting information.

First of all, the purpose television is mostly amusement. It isn’t that valuable for getting news and knowledge, even though many people use it for that today.

For instance, when you watch the news, there’s usually some scrolling text or a video playing on mute as the news anchor reports. Also, the station will usually spend only a few seconds on each story. This is to keep you from getting bored with the information.

All you really learn from television is that anything worth knowing is entertaining, says media critic Neil Postman in his book, “Amusing Ourselves to Death.”

No matter how hard it tries, television cannot be complex or deal with intricate ideas, says Postman. If it did, the audience would get bored and change the channel. This is not conducive to helping someone become more intellectual or building knowledge in the long run.

I’m not saying TV is worthless. It has its place, and I have my own shows that I hate to miss. But it isn’t as beneficial in information and education as books.

Reading has tons of benefits. These include relaxation, improving writing and building vocabulary.

Reading also arms against oppression, according to Jocelyn Downs in her presentation based off the book “Reading Reasons: Motivational Mini-Lessons for Middle and High School.”

Having the kind of complex knowledge found in books, as well as access to many different viewpoints, will prevent anyone from trying to control or trick you into oppression.

That’s one reason why, when one nation tries to oppress another, the first thing they usually do is burn their books. Hitler did this during the Holocaust, the Spanish did it during the Inquisition, all the way back to the beginning of books themselves.

And that’s also why white planters didn’t want their slaves to learn to read. The thinking was, if they could read, they may find the knowledge and viewpoints that would allow them to free themselves.

Reading will also help you build and maintain knowledge. It could even save you from Alzheimer’s and similar dementia. “Research findings suggest that dementia risk is lower in individuals with more extensive education [and] greater engagement in mentally stimulating leisure activities during adulthood,” says an article by Drs. Gatz, Prescott and Pedersen in “Alzheimer Disease and Associated Disorders.”

As college students, reading is a huge part of our everyday lives.

For most of us, though, it won’t always be.

The thing is, reading levels are decreasing as television watching levels are increasing nationally.

Today, a book would have to sell 24,000,000 copies in order to match Thomas Payne’s 1776 pamphlet “Common Sense,” according to Postman.

Very few books even come close to that.

In 1985, there were 9 million TV viewers per night, says Postman. That is roughly the population of Georgia.

Oprah alone has that many now daily.

The reading decline is rapid for our generation. The National Endowment for the Arts says reading levels have dropped 28 percent in the last 20 years for our age group.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. There are lots of things to read. You don’t have to trudge through “Beowulf” in order to expand your mind with a book.

You can read fiction. Nonfiction. Or even “maps, recipes, income tax instructions [or] blueprints,” says Downs. Anything to engage your brain.

“It is hard to say nothing when employing a written English sentence,” says Postman.

The problem is easy enough to fix. We just all have to actually take the time to read every once in a while. Doing so will help you in the long run.

– Bailey Lewis is a sophomore in English from Indianola.