Books vs Movies — A Battle Between Growth and Entertainment
SolidEssay Scholarship Essay Contest
After a long day at work where you got yelled at by your boss, you come back home and have a decision to make. Do you spend the evening lounging around watching a movie, or picking up a good book and giving it a read?
But you’re not only choosing between these two options, because this choice will lay the foundation for how your evening turns out.
Read a book and you might want to implement its learnings and spend your time more productively. Watch a movie, and you might grab a bag of chips or popcorn and scroll through social media simultaneously. This is why decisions like these are “pivot points” in our day, where one choice can impact us for many hours ahead.
But against what you might think, I am in no way saying that one option is better than the other. What matters here is the goal you want to achieve; entertainment versus growth.
Choose the short-term entertainment, time-passing, mind-numbing option, and movies are clearly a better option. In times when we’re just exhausted, we want to receive the greatest possible benefit for the least possible effort.
Unlike books that require us to physically read each word, movies engage many more senses like sight and sound which make them easier to visualize and understand. Movies also last around two hours, while books almost certainly take longer to read. Movies also have an important social aspect such as going to the theatre with friends and enjoying delicious snacks.
There is a reason why kids like me hardly read assigned books like Hamlet in school and simply watched the movie instead (sorry Mr. Halpin 🙃). It’s because movies are not only a method of entertainment, but an overall experience of escaping to a new world.
However, after that same long day at work, if you got yelled at for missing an important meeting, maybe instead of passing time watching movies, you’ll want to pick up a good book and learn how to improve your time management skills.
It is in these moments of wanting growth, self-help, and self-improvement that books are far superior. Even though reading them is a much more difficult task, books are the better long-term option because they can help us make positive changes in our lives by impacting our ways of thinking.
So in order to read a self-development book most effectively, use this READ acronym I came up with to get the most possible value out of it:
- Reclusivity — Have a designated quiet space to do your reading regularly. Books require good amounts of focus to read, so having a space that is free from distractions like electronics will improve how much you gain from it.
- Experimentation — Try out exercises that the author suggests for ways to improve your life. Self-help books are worthless if you don’t take deliberate action to try and help yourself. Having notes for actions you want to take and then developing measurable goals based on those notes will help you remember what you hope to achieve.
- Adaptation — Adjust, evolve, and see what works best for you. Strategies in these books are not one-size-fits-all. Some activities you’ll enjoy, and some you won’t. No big deal. Just try as many things as possible that the author suggests and then cater them to best fit your life and your goals.
- Discussion — Accountability is the key to self-improvement. Oftentimes when we commit to something to someone else (especially someone we care about), we are more motivated to fulfil these promises so we don’t let the other person down. This can be leveraged for us to achieve our personal goals. Joining book clubs and meeting with others is not only helpful to discuss key takeaways from a book you all read, but in sharing action items and goals so that you can check in and keep each other motivated.
What I would say is that as a society, we underestimate the value books have in our lives. Since they aren’t as stimulating as Tik Toks or television, they’ve been sort of put to the side for the younger generation.
Now I’m not saying don’t relax. Having time dedicated to lying on the couch watching Netflix is important for everyone. But as someone who got into reading a lot more during the pandemic, it has amazed me how much value I can gain from them by implementing what I’ve learned into my own life.
So next time you’re at a pivot point in the day with an important decision to make, understand fully the goal you want to reach. Don’t listen to what your brain is telling you to do. Pay attention to that little voice inside of what you truly want to achieve, and then pick the option that will best help you get there!
