In the modern era of the 21st century where technological advancements are rapidly developing by the second, it seems inevitable that a major portion of the world’s population will be submersed in the whole sub-culture of 
social media and internet communications. However, despite the immense positive attributes that technology has brought forth to our world (i.e. closing the mass gap between people on two opposing planes of the Earth to allow for intercommunication), it is also apparent that the recent surge of technology usage has produced detrimental effects as well. Rates of addiction to social media and the internet has risen dramatically; both media sensationalism and desensitization to media violence have become realities in many parts of the world. At a time where information both real and false are flying at us at an almost incomprehensible rate, it is not difficult to become overwhelmed; to be left in the dust, utterly speechless and a tad bit more pessimistic about the world.
Sometimes, we all want to escape–perhaps just for a few minutes–from the world that we live in and for a brief while exist in another world, somewhere distant and far away.
In our modern day that can become at times overwhelming and over-demanding, books provide great opportunities for escapes, relaxation while at the same time allowing us to further ourselves and gain new knowledge and insight. In an analogous sense, each book is comparable to a galaxy, whereas while galaxies contain almost an innumerable quantity of stars, stardust, planets, and nebulae, books contain knowledge, information, questions, answers, and the such that cannot merely be measured using some numerical device.
If the Internet contains more information than we could ever need, why do we ever have a need to read?
To quote James Baldwin:
You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, who had ever been alive.
One of the quintessential questions of philosophy and life is about whether or not humans have innate morality (i.e. are humans born good or born evil.) Books, first and foremost, (particularly for fiction) addresses the question about human nature and life in some aspect, and makes real and highlights the various emotions and pains that people go through everyday. Unlike on the internet, where this more than down-to-earth depiction of human nature and life is not present as there are often veils of anonymity.
Incorporating the hedgehog analogy which contrasts humans to hedgehogs–where we all seek solace and comfort in companionship, yet because of the quills and needles that we possess, like hedgehogs–we will only end up causing one another pain if we get too close. By reading books, we further ourselves by understanding others on a more empathetic and humane level.
Furthermore, while the internet offers many breadth of knowledge, it does not contain the necessary depth of knowledge necessary for the improvement of our overall understanding pertaining to a certain subject and for us to ask more meaningful and insightful questions.
Among other benefits (e.g. the improvement of memory, critical thinking skills, vocabulary, discipline, and communication) books are a form of entertainment that is increasingly useful and wonderful in a technological and interconnected world. Books allow us to immerse ourselves in a world of words, realities that can be wondrous and melancholic. Like other “dead tree media” the medium which allow us to micro-adjust ourselves and our senses known as “books” may become increasingly obsolete in the coming years as we shift towards the digitization of human life, yet is becoming more important as time flies by.
