An Open Letter to Margaret Simons of CRIKEY in Australia re reading now and reading in the future

Margaret, i am your very good essay in Meanjins. Well said. One thing, nobody seems to be talking about this and i feel it is very important: maybe you blog about this one day, your POV and allow me to do a guest blog here one day, and it is about this: I feel, as a longtime blogger, writer, editor, teacher, READER, that reading on paper is very different from reading on screens, so different that I believe we need a new word for this new kind of reading mode, and i have no idea what the word will be, but for now i am calling it "screening" and I also have a strong hunch that future MRI scans fo the brain will show that reading on paper lights up different parts of the brain compared to when we read on screens, er, that is, when we "screen' text off screens, and that these diferecnes will be shown to be for retention of the info, processing of the info, analysis of the info and critical thinking ABOUT the info. I am in touch with 25 top reading and education and tech experts worldwide on this, including the pioneering Anne Mangen in Norway and Dr Maryanne Wolf at Tufts in Boston and severael top researchers at UCLA medical school in California. I beleive that future MRI scans will prove my hunch correct, that reading on paper is SUPERIOR to reading off screens, er, screening, for retention, processing, analysis, etc. and that we NEED TO STUDY all this MORE and MORE before we commit to a future where reading on paper is a rare thing and reading off screens, er, screening, is what most people do. Screening is NOT reading. It is more akin to scanning or skimming. I am sure you agree with me. SMILE. Can you write about this? can you let me guest blog about this. Can Meanjins let me do an essay on this? And may i interview YOU for my blog in Taiwan 10 qusetions by email about all this, your POV, pro or con and in between? Can do? Email me off line ..... - loved your essay, loved the story of your son, turning the pages, loved the last graf re your dad and grandson.....tears in my eyes as i read the print out at home




QUESTION: why is no one talking about my ideas about paper reading vs screening? The major newspaeprs in US and OZ refuse to accept my opeds on this. Not one reporter will interview me, not pro or con? Why the silence, why the fear? I am telling the truth. I am on the soemthing here. If we build a future based soley on screen-reading, civilization as a whole will suffer. That's my theme. Agree?