Print or Screen: The Zen of Reading

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Print or Screen: The Zen of Reading

A very interesting post landed in my in-box yesterday. It came from The Chronicle of Higher Education and it looked at a recent paper by Anne Mangen in the journal of Research in Reading (2008, pp. 404 - 419), titled "Hypertext fiction reading: haptics and immersion." (I know..absolutely gripping title)

Mangen touches on a fascinating aspect of reading, specifically, the tangibility of reading. The look, feel, heft and smell of a book vs. the disembodied experience of reading from an electronic screen: "Unlike print texts, digital texts are ontologically intangible and detached from the physical and mechanical dimension of their material support, namely, their computer or e-book (or other devices, such as the PDA, the iPod or the mobile phone"

I've always disliked reading from a screen. Often, I even print off documents so I can review the old fashioned way. And I love books. If you want to want me to crack like a cheap plastic wine glass at a family reunion, put me in a room for an hour with no reading materials. I'll be pacing in a cold sweat in a matter of minutes. I have multiple screens I can read from, and have read a few e-books, but the experience for me is a mere shadow of that feeling of turning a physical page (this, by the way, is what Mangen means by "haptics").

Mangen says that the technology that enables digital reading actually gets in the way of a pure imaginative rendering of a fictional world. A print book has no distracting technology. A Kindle or iPhone does. These are some pretty heady concepts, but they touch on that vague feeling of dissatisfaction I have whenever I read something in digital form. I just don't like it as much as a book, so while the rationality of keeping hundreds or thousands of books on my iPhone appeals to me, I still have several bookshelves and cardboard boxes full of books at home. Amazon loves me..a lot!

This whole topic becomes more material to me as I'm getting ready to self-publish my own book. Amazon will be producing the print version, but there will also be an electronic version. I wonder if my preference for paper is a generational thing. One of the topics I explore in the book is the difference between Digital Natives (people born after 1985 who grew up with digital technology) and Digital Immigrants (people born before 1985 who adopted digital technology as adults). Or is it deeper than that? Do we have some inherent bond with books? Do women feel differently than men?

I've launched a quick survey to explore this further. It's only three questions long, so will take you about 40 seconds. I'll share the results in a future post.

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Print | posted @ Friday, October 23, 2009 7:35 AM

Comments on this entry:

# re: Print or Screen: The Zen of Reading

by dan e. bloom at 10/30/2009 8:19 PM

Could scholars and neuroscientists (and bloggers!) benefit from a new
word for "reading on screens" and what might that word be, in your
opinion?

A guest blog by Danny Bloom in Taiwan
http://zippy1300.blogspot.com

I'm on a crusade of sorts to try to find a new word for "reading"
on computer screens and Kindle and other e-reader device screens -- other than
"reading", that is! -- and I wonder if you'd join me in my quixotic quest.

I'm pushing forward with my little crusade, step by
step, despite the many naysayers, who keep telling me: "No, Danny,
you're wrong. There's no need for a new for reading on screens.
Reading is reading."

Sometimes I feel this word search campaign is like pushing a heavy
stone up a steep hill, only to have it roll back
a few feet every time we advance a few inches. But along the way, I
have met some experts in the education and technology fields who have
told me this is a good question to ask, and to keep pushing on,
gently, quietly. So I soldier on.

Although few people in the education and technology fields agree with me
on this novel idea, but I remain determined. In fact, a
few experts and forecasters around the world have told me privately
that this crusade is worth it, if only to start a global discussion
on the future of reading and the future of E-readers.

Reading on screens is a whole new ballgame, I feel, and I
believe Western culture needs a new word for this new human activity. It
is more than just "reading". On a screen, you scroll, you
link, you see photos and videos, you use a mouse or buttons on a
Kindle, and then of course, you read. This is
reading-plus-one.

So I feel we might need a new word for this, although I
have no idea what that word will be in the end, because as many people
have told me in the past year during the course of my crusade, new
words happen organically and
naturally, when the time is right, and when the need becomes more than
apparent. So this is all just to jumpstart a good discussion, pro and con.

I read, of course, on both paper surfaces and screens every day, and
I love both.
I am not a Luddite. I love technology as much as you do. One is not a
priori better or worse than the other, just
different, and we need to study these differences more with brain scan
tests and other scholarly research. A new word might help us "see" the
differeneces better. That's my hunch.

Some people online have suggested such words as "screening" and
"screading". Who knows which words we will adopt
for this or when? I have no idea. I just like thinking about it now,
and when the time is right, the new words or terms will come. One
blogger told me we might even need two words for this, one for reading
on computer screens, which are backlit, and another for reading on
e-readers like the Kindle, which uses E-Ink for the
screens.

I am open to all suggestions for the new words, and I am very
patient about this crusade, while at the same time steadfast and
committed to this
seeminly impossible word search. Patience is my middle name: Danny
"Patience" Bloom (1949 - 2032).

do you, dear reader, have any suggestions on this? All ideas are
welcome, and all comments are welcome, too, both pro and con. Let the
discussion begin!

-------------

Danny Bloom is an American blogger who has worked out of Asia since
1991, where he maintains a blog at http://zippy1300.blogspot.com