Bibliophile Deficit

Reading habits are waning at an exponential rate. This must be a cause of concern at various levels. It has led to the development of a generation that is not concerned about the importance of reading. There is an enormous depletion of newspaper readers and those who love books. It can be easily seen that we are witnessing the loss of bibliophiles. This deficit is leading to great loss of intellectual capital. Even the schools and colleges that were supposed to inculcate the habit of reading among the students are failing in creating the bibliophiles. The focus on promoting the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has destroyed the thinking beings that created a niche for themselves for being original thinkers and writers. There used to be a class of newspaper readers who had different papers and judged the newspapers from their editorials and the language used in them. Not only that, they adopted the newspapers on the basis of their editorial line. Leave aside the newspaper readers. There is a dearth of journalists and editors who can be counted as writing their editorials and reports on the primary research and originality. They are inflicted with the virus called Artificial Intelligence(AI),creating a content that is not factual but based on the imaginations of the softwares. This has turned the newspapers into a bunch of AI generated trash. The primary reason being that there is no one who can question the veracity of the content as the readers who are well versed are not available on the scene. A newspaper and its quality is not defined by the newspaper publisher and editor alone . It involves the active participation of the readers as well. Over the years the loss of keen readers has led to the absence of the letters of the editor. This column is as important as the editorial of the newspaper. The reason being it acts as the kind of appraisal by keeping the editors alert. Readers act as sentinels but that sense has been lost. Newspaper editorials were supposed to be the soul of the newspapers. It gave the readers the intellectual diet and allowed them to learn the language with perfection. This has to change. Editors must internalise that the print form of serious journalism cannot be replaced by the online versions. Moreover, the serious and responsible newspapers must discourage their journalists to stay away from AI as it shows that the newspaper is lacking professionalism and is breeding a vicious pattern. On the other hand, the loss of bibliophiles is causing great damage to society. It leads to inertia at all levels. It develops a society that has lost its moorings at all levels.Teachers must identify their role as the catalysts in this situation.So that they can create a knowledge society to bridge this gap to create bibliophiles.Mode of teaching must be primarily based on the book learning so that the students inculcate the value of book reading.Digital learning is good but promoting it at the cost of books is suicidal.Both newspapers and books have to be given their place back.The reason is simple that we cannot afford to shun them for our own sake. The more we move away from reading books and newspapers the more we are leading towards the loss of intellectual capacity and the ability to be original.