Reading and Censorship

I think that we should read because it is very beneficial to our intelligence. Reading can help with one’s writing and teach how words can be used. Books, also, have ideas and important themes that can teach us opinions that are different than ours. Books can influence the person reading them, usually for the good. However, other books have bad or controversial themes and are banned or censored. This occurs usually in school libraries. Children can be very impressionable and some parents don’t want their children to read about certain themes. I can understand that parents wouldn’t want their child to know about a controversial topic, but I think that restricting certain books should be the personal decision of the parents. In my English class last year, we talked about how a picture book for kids was banned from schools all around the country, just because there was a same-sex couple in it. Apart from this, the book was completely innocent. Just because a group of people don’t want a book in a school library, does not mean they should prohibit everyone else from taking out that book.

Today, I think that a lot of people believe the majority of what they watch on television or read on the Internet. The media wants to gain money and share the message of their company. I  don’t think the media should be censored, but rather people that read these works think more about the information and read different sources until necessary. Currently there is a lot of discussion about “fake news”, which I think intended to bring the idea of bias in the media to attention, but has been converted into a may for people to reject and discredit  the points that some authors make. I think that more people should become conscious of bias in the media and not be so quick to assume that what they are reading is the truth. It can be difficult to find the pure truth in writing, but I think by reading a variety of sources, you can find the common themes and assume that is the truth.