A cliché article would blatantly tell you that books are superior, and watching television destroys creativity. While there may be some truth in that statement, we need to analyse this from the perspective of the children. A child born in the '90s is very likely to pick books as an entertaining source because he was exposed to books all his life. He did not see much TV and will not vouch for it. The exact opposite is true for a child born in this decade.
Entertainment is a highly fluid and subjective term and depends solely on the day and age we live in. Millennials often tend to resonate with audio-visual tools. This does not mean that books have died out; readers are and will always be there. But it is safe to say that comic books are slowly dying out. People want to see their comic book heroes in the theatres. Buying magazines has also seen a decline. Entertainment shows, talk shows and interviews on Youtube have led to celebrity gossip and news easily available at your fingertips for free. On the contrary, magazines take time to come, are expensive and require effort to read.As the world is becoming more open to being spoon fed information, television is on the rise. But just because something is popular doesn't mean it is beneficial.
As content is generated on such notice on television, the quality and relevancy are often compromised. A Harry Potter fan will always advocate the book over the action film. This is not necessarily because the movie is bad, but more or less, the adaptations are often incomplete.
Books aren't bound by time and budget limitations. Television shows have time slots and have to pay actors. This leads to constraints which often lead to cringy and incomplete depictions of stories. Books are beneficial as they are self-paced. This means that the user experience of reading a book is personalised. Every person can grasp and understand the book at their speed and their level so many of the best boarding school in Dehradun implement strategies so that students grasp and understand books easily. They also have the freedom to give faces to characters and locations according to their imaginations. This customised experience is a benefit of reading a book. A movie is often paced, which means the diverse audience is forced to digest content at the same speed. This can lead to people either getting bored or being clueless. People have no room for imagination while watching a movie as everything is visually provided.
The counter-argument is very interesting. Have you ever felt something that you can't put into words? That's what limits books. Some emotions are spoken by eyes and body language and can only be covered in movies. Books find it difficult to depict these scenarios. This is a huge shortcoming as creative media is all about expression, and television can easily take the win over books. Worldbuilding is an important aspect of beneficial entertainment. When we read the classic book, "A Brave New World", we find it difficult to grasp the minuscule details of the futuristic city. Authors spend a considerable amount of time describing the details of the world the story is set in. Television can easily do this through visual tools. Hence they do not need to waste time in specifically mentioning it. This lets television focus more on the story and the characters. The characters in the book are extremely powerful as they are fictional. Television often features actors, which means the performance of the character depends on the abilities of the actors. Sometimes actors do a brilliant job at making the character memorable and interesting. But there is always a risk of not doing justice to the role.
Television is more readily available and cheaper. This is a huge advantage as we often wait long periods to get the next instalment of our favourite authors. Money also plays an important factor, and we can buy almost a hundred channels on cable at the price of a novel. This leads to many people choosing television as a means of entertainment by virtue of its sheer availability.
Hence we can conclude that by sheer metrics, books are more beneficial as a medium of entertainment. But the widespread use of television and rise of quality content, television will soon cover up all its shortcomings.