Scott Sykes in Beijing: What the future holds

Scott Sykes, a PR pro in Beijing, says:

"Dan, I agree with you for the most part, reading is going digital, not to mention the fact that digital offers so much more than just text in terms of video, images, sound, etc etc etc. However, I still do read "old fashioned" books :-)

Not necessary to consume the contents of a book in hard-copy format anymore I know, but sometimes it's nice, I don't know, something about the tactile feel perhaps."

Scott's comment mirrors perfectly what Dr Anne Mangen of Norway said in her study, too. See below. And also what author Jane Yolen says in a recent email to this blog:

"For me, the experience of reading a book is both a story experience and a tactile one. Reading on a screen gives me headaches and I lose the sense of bookiness. This is probably an age-related problem, but hey--I am stuck with it. Or on it."




Jane Yolen
www.janeyolen.com

Online v. print reading: which one makes us smarter?
By Coco Ballantyne , [edited by DANNY BLOOM for emphasis and to make a point]


It's no mystery that publications have been taking a beating as more
and more people SCREEN their news on the Net. But there's a catch. The
online info may be instant and abundant -- and in many cases free --
but it may come at a cost, says a new study published in the Journal
of Research in Reading/Screening.

Study author Anne Mangen, an associate prof of literacy studies at
Norway's University of Stavanger, says she discovered that SCREENING
online may not be as rewarding – or effective – as the printed word.
The reasons: The process involves so much physical manipulation of the
computer that it interferes with our ability to focus on and
appreciate what we're SCREENING; online text moves up and down the
screen and lacks physical dimension, robbing us of a feeling of
completeness; and multimedia features, such as links to videos and
animations, leave little room for imagination, limiting our ability to
form our own mental pictures to illustrate what we're SCREENING.

"The visual happenings on the screen… and your physical interaction
with the device is distracting," Mangen says. "All of these things are
taxing on cognition and concentration in a way that a book is not."

Given her findings, Mangen says that the implications of digital
technology should be considered when deciding whether to incorporate
computer teaching tools into classroom instruction. She notes that
online teaching tools, such as electronic books, are being used from
kindergarten up even though there is little research on their effect
on learning and development.