Books and movies are two different ways of receiving pleasure and learning new information. Books have existed for thousands of years, while movies have appeared relatively recently, about 2-3 centuries ago. For generations after generations stories have been told through pages of books. Now, however, movies have become a more modern way of telling a story.
An argument on which form of entertainment is more enjoyable has been going on for a while. Some prefer the movies, arguing that while watching a movie, it is easier to understand the plot. Others prefer books, because it gives their imagination more freedom of interpretation. But as movie production is becoming more and more advanced. (with all the visual effects and stunning techniques that might even overshadow a person’s imagination) books being a preferred way of enjoyment over movies might be questionable… or not?
To find out what students of GZAAT love more; reading books or watching movies I conducted a survey in which fifty 9th graders took part. The question was, what is their preferred spare-time activity, watching movies or enjoying reading books. The chart on the right shows the results of the survey. The red part represents the percentage that prefers the books and the blue part represents the percentage that prefers the movies. As the chart shows, 44% of the participants prefer reading books, while the other 56%
enjoys watching movies.
Another question in the survey was, why do they prefer one over the other . Here are some of the answers. “I like movies because personally, reading some of the books are boring (not talking about very interesting books), but movies are a lot easier to understand because there we see animations and/or people who act. However, in the book, there are only words that are sometimes unknown to me and the plot is much harder to understand. Movies are a lot easier to understand also because, in the book, you have to imagine what is happening, but in the movie, there already is the imagined scene for you to watch”;
“Books leave a much bigger impact on me than movies. Reading something and visualizing the story with my own imagination, rather than the director's vision, allows me to view the story through my own eyes and resonate with my personal experiences. Watching motion pictures is less time consuming but a more passive experience than reading. Also, reading allows readers to widen their vocabulary and improve their analytical skills.”
“I prefer movies because they are much easier to watch and you can also watch them with a friend.”;
You don’t have to think while watching a movie and it is more entertaining and takes less time too.
“Reading a book is a longer and more enjoyable process. Your mind goes to a different state and I often imagine the actions or the characters that take place in the book. Whereas movies are shorter, a different version of the story, and characters are already played out for you so it’s hard to imagine someone else in that role.”.
As the last part of the survey, after discovering the respondents’ preferences and the reasons for it, I investigated which types of movies and genres of books do 9th graders enjoy watching or reading the most. The results are as follows: two most preferred movie types were detective and action, both having 24 votes, giving the second place to comedy with 23 votes. As for the book genres, the results were quite similar results in the most liked genres with detective and adventure getting 26 votes each, however the second place was dramatically different from the answers we got in the movies section. Second place holders are books about romance and drama, both of them with 19 votes.
Edited by: Lika Gegenava
Really interesting article!