Looking Up A (Physical) Dictionary: How Many Of Us Still Do That?

Day 80/100
When technology entered our lives, some skills left forever. Do you remember the last time you picked up a physical dictionary, flipped the pages to find the meaning of a word? Among the many memories of growing up, one remained of learning for the first time to use a dictionary to find the meaning of a word. Achieving that meant, you are not a child anymore. What happiness and pride that gave birth to!! During my college days, whenever I used to read a book, I used to sit with a dictionary, a notebook and a pen. Everytime I came across a difficult word, I would pause, look it up in the dictionary, make a note of it (with coloured pens) and then would proceed to reading. Yes, it was a tedious process, but I enjoyed this process of learning. I read, wrote, searched all at the same time. If I tell my son to do the same now, he would perhaps laugh at me, calling me foolish for asking him to waste so much of his time.

Most of the kids now think that a lot of work we used to do then was repetitive and unnecessary. I wonder what this generation will do with all the extra time they gain by not doing certain manual tasks? Are they leading a happier life, have they learnt more than us? I’m not sure. Looking up the meaning of a word from a physical dictionary is very important I suppose. Today we have in-built dictionaries, so we really don’t need to pause while reading. Moreover, our dear Google is always ready with answers without the least bit of hard work from our side. So this generation doesn’t understand the pleasures of looking for something and finding it and the process that makes this happen. For them, wait time is frustrating, they want instant gratification. I may be old school, but I still enjoy writing down meanings of words and using coloured pens to make them look pretty. When I’m sitting with a physical book, I still want my dictionary next to me. How many of you are like me?