Parents Encouraged To Embrace Reading Culture

Parents Encouraged To Embrace Reading CultureParents and guardians have been advised to encourage their children to embrace a reading culture, which may aid in the prevention of mobile phone addiction.Caroline Ngacaku, a librarian with the Kenya National Library Services (KNLS), Murang’a branch, has observed that in the current digital era, many young people spend the majority of their time with mobile phones, claiming that exposure to the internet may expose the young to dissolute materials.She claims that because of phones, students have less time to read books and other published materials, which provide more information than the internet.Ngacaku stated that not all materials accessed via the internet are of high quality, and that young people may be influenced to visit immoral websites, which can have a negative impact on their social lives.“Parents should encourage their school going children to visit and study at public libraries where they can access a variety of books, magazines among other materials. Published books usually provide standard information and this will lower the rate of phone addiction to learners,” she added.Ngacaku told KNA in her office on Friday that the internet should not be used to discourage reading culture, especially among the youth, but rather to supplement what is published in books.“Not all of the time, parents monitor what their children access on mobile phones, which is why we want them to bring their children to libraries, where they will only be engaged with books,” she added.Some books available on the internet, according to Ngacaku, may lack some information, and that for academic purposes, students should primarily rely on published books.“In all our branches, we have books which are certified and which are recommended for academic purposes. The services are free and members of the community can access them. Embracing the culture of reading will reduce addiction to phones by young people,” she added.According to Ngacaku, the library provides a better reading environment not only for children but also for senior citizens.“Our libraries have a lot and diverse reading materials which can be of importance for research,” she further remarked.ALSO READ:Another librarian, Grace Wambui, echoed her sentiments, stating that the government has revamped public libraries and that, in addition to stocking books, the facilities are also training computer literacy.“We have the internet in our public libraries, which supports research and those interested can be trained on computer literacy. We feel it’s good for children to use our libraries since at home they may face disturbances during study time,” said Wambui.

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