Mobile devices reading revolution
Perhaps, before now, it was unimaginable the quantum of book reading that could be taking place, more so in our new world where the reading culture, notably among the younger generation, has diminished to a level that belies professed intellectual accomplishments.
When society cries out over paucity of researches and studies or lack of enablers for same in the nation’s ivory towers and research institutes, it is because the society understands and believes in the capacity of researches and studies to throw up new knowledge, uncover potentials, discover new trends, proffer solutions or point the way forward for advancement and growth of society.
It is against this backdrop that we salute a recent study by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), adjudged the largest first study of its kind, which has discovered that mobile devices unlock literacy potential!
As part of the celebration of World Book Day recently, UNESCO, in coalition with Worldreader and Nokia, released the results of the largest survey on mobile reading in the developing world, revealing that mobile devices can help significantly enhance people’s literacy skills.
Through responses from nearly 5,000 people across seven developing countries, including Ethiopia, Ghana, India, Kenya, Nigeria, Pakistan and Zimbabwe, UNESCO has discovered that mobile reading can open educational opportunities to nearly seven billion people, ultimately reducing illiteracy rates forever. In places, where physical books are scarce, mobile phones are plentiful. And while mobile phones are still used primarily for basic communication, even the simplest of phones are a gateway to long-form text.
It gladdens our heart that mobile reading is not a future phenomenon but a right-here, right-now reality, and Worldreader’s free mobile reading app which averages nearly 200,000 users per month, is evidence that there is high demand for mobile reading in areas that lack access to paper books.
“We now have two years of data proving that people are spending hundreds of hours a month reading short and long form text, using basic feature and Android phones,” Elizabeth Hensick Wood, director of digital publishing and mobile platforms at Worldreader, said, adding, “as part of this research, we interviewed dozens of individuals, ranging from students to teachers to parents, and all told a similar story: they do not have access to paper books, they are thrilled to now have thousands of free books on their mobile phones and they are now reading more than ever.”
For us in Nigeria, this is a positive development because this is a society where a combination of factors ranging from poverty and unemployment to other social malaise including corruption, epileptic electricity supply, insecurity, hunger etc, kill the appetite and dampen enthusiasm for reading and acquiring knowledge.
It is amazing how increasingly people are becoming inclined to quick wins and easy-to-do ways to attract attention and get onto the ladder of life, thereby discouraging industry and enterprise which involve knowledge and skill acquisition through reading and/or learning.
We share the view as expressed by David Risher, CEO and co-founder of Worldreader, that world illiteracy could be attributed, in part, to the fact that people have access to a very small number of books, or none at all in some areas of the world.
We also agree with Mark West from UNESCO, the author of the report, who says that mobile devices can help people develop, sustain and enhance their literacy skills, explaining that this is important because literacy opens the door to life-changing opportunities and benefits.
It is not difficult today to see even 10-old children clutching eye-catching mobile phones which, in our opinion, should be taken beyond basic communication to become new mobile library and we enjoin parents to make the best of this opportunity right in the hands of their children.
The study discovered that women and girls in particular are benefitting from having a new way to access books, reading up to six times more than men and boys, and that parents regularly read to children using mobile phones. The study also shows that a vast majority of people enjoy reading more on their mobile phones, and that mobile reading often reverses people’s negative attitudes towards reading.
Nothing could be truer, and we can’t agree more, considering that contrary to what many may think, only 18 percent of the respondents cited cost, or use of airtime, as a potential barrier to reading more on mobiles.
It is our hope that young men and women in schools and outside of it would catch up with this new trend. Who knows, by so doing, we as a country, might be on our way out of the Chibok of our time given that, ours is a case of “my people perish for lack of knowledge” which reading can offer.