Is reading and writing more important today?

Language is the cornerstone of human knowledge, which our ancestors passed on to us through books and scripts. With the advance of the internet, information accumulates at an unprecedentedly rapid pace. In light of this, the ability to digest this massive amount of information and make our innovative ideas seen has only become more important than ever.

To begin with, reading determines our breadth and depth of knowledge. The internet is inundated by all sorts of information, from news to vlogs. It is estimated that 2.5 quintillion bytes of data are generated every day. How can we extract the useful that adds to our knowledge? The ability to read. I work as a physician and now have to walk through hundreds of medical articles every week to catch myself up on the latest treatments for the sake of my patients. At the beginning of my career, I also struggled to look for the right articles relevant to my specialty. However, throughout years of practice, I developed the ability to determine if an article is worth perusing based on its abstract and certain keywords, which greatly speeds up my taking up the essence of these articles. My reading ability definitely makes me a more competent physician.

Furthermore, writing allows our innovative ideas to be seen. The internet is a democratic world where everyone gets an opportunity to write something. While most of the articles are simply platitudes and not worthy of our precious time, some inspire us and spark further innovation. Organizing our knowledge into something worth savoring may change someone's life and even the whole world. I once had a patient with extremely complicated medical conditions. I kept a detailed record of his medical history and listed all the diagnoses he had with comprehensive descriptions and references to laboratory tests. By doing so, I could hand him over to another senior physician, who indeed acclaimed my efforts because he was able to continue the same quality of medical care by reading my notes and we both knew that was crucial to save the patient's life.

To sum up, I endorse that reading and writing have never been more important than ever, especially in this era of information explosion. Being clever readers allows us to broaden our horizons and being skilled writers makes our intelligence appreciated. Therefore, I believe we should all invest some of our precious time in enhancing our reading and writing skills.