Boxes And Arrows : The Design Behind the Design

questions for YOU:

for dan bloom’s blog on ’’reading’’ in the Internet age,

Q and A style

1. Since reading on paper is very different from reading on screens,
do you think that at some point we might need a new word in English
for “reading on screens”, yes or no?

2. If YES, can you suggest any possible words for this new word: maybe
scanning? screen-reading? screening? any other words you can think of
that might work well here, words or terms?

3. A futurist inthe USA , a very well known person, tells me:
“Screening” is not a new term, but this might just be the time that it
catches on, given the imminent arrival of Apple’s iPad, and other
devices. The last time I heard it—screening—in this way—was
back in the late 1990s when the RocketBook and Softbook made their
debut, but the term didn’t do any better than the products did.”

do you agree with him that THIS might be the time SCREENING catches
on, based on your 2008 academic paper? Yes or no or comments?

4. This fururist told me “This time around, screening is a clever and
useful term capturing the fact
that the experience reading on a screen is fundamentally different
from reading on paper. Not a priori worse or better; just different.”
Do you agree with him here, yes or no or comments?

5. This futurist also told me …”So definitley SCREENING is the right
word for the moment in terms of drawing
people’s attention to the vast literary shift about to wash over
us….Do you agree that we are now witnessing a vast literary shift
about to wash over us? YES NO MAYBE? COMMENTS?

6. Is there any research yet that speaks about the way that different
parts of the brain light up when people read on paper compared to when
they read on a screen? Has anyone studied it this way yet? Can it be
studied this way? Do you think it is possible that different parts of
the brain light up when we read on paper vs reading on screens? Might
PHD people do research on this in the future.? how could one conduct
such research? with MRI machines? brain scans?

7. Does reading on screens hamper or hinder our critical analysis
skills of what we are reading?

8. If in the future most reading is done on screens, from computers to
iPhones to Kindles to even textbooks on screens, could this hurt the
critical thinking skills of young people to think, analyze and asess
information?

9. Do you think people will be reading on paper surfaces anymore in
the year 2050? in the year 2099?

10. Are you willing or ready to say goodbye to MR PAPER, and greet
the SCREEN AGE with a complete open-minded welcome?

All I can say is that the comment system of B+A sure discourages reading from screen.
Yes we’ll be reading from paper. if for no other reason than it’ll still be around; there’s just too much value in them thar pages.
BUT paper, generally, does not run out of batteries, can respond well to serious abuse (being dropped, wetted, folded, torn, stuck back together, written on and thumbed repeatedly) and has a number of useful cues and affordances. You can tell how far through the book you are; you can use this method to estimate your position should you drop the bookmark. you can scan the pages quickly because you remember quite a lot about the shape of paragraphs. Being reflective rather than luminant it is more often than not easer on the eye. Most importantly, these sorts of cues don’t have to be taught explicitly; they come as baggage with the teaching of reading.

I don’t know about you, but if I switch off my concious focus when reading on screen I have to go back and read again; it seems to require ‘active reading’. Reading a book on the other hand is more often refered to as ‘relaxing’... I’d be very surprised if different part of the brain didn’t light up

Martin, thanks for your comments above. You are the first person here to take the time to comment and to take my ideas seriously. I appreciate your good feedback. If you want to keep up with my evolving thinking on this, and I do not hav a PHD or anything, just a common thinker thinking hard about this, because it matters, go to my blog at “zippy1300” in the blogosphere. you can find it via Google.

Let me underline what i like about what you said: IN CAPS

All I can say is that the comment system of B+A sure discourages reading from screen. HAHA

Yes we’ll be reading from paper. if for no other reason than it’ll still be around; there’s just too much value in them thar pages. I DO HOPE SO.

.....paper, generally, does not run out of batteries, can respond well to serious abuse (being dropped, wetted, folded, torn, stuck back together, written on and thumbed repeatedly) and has a number of useful cues and affordances. ...
GOOD POINT THERE re CUES AND AFFORADANCES…. I LIKE THAT

You can tell how far through the book you are; IMPORTANT YES

you can use this method to estimate your position should you drop the bookmark. SMILE

you can scan the pages quickly because you remember quite a lot about the shape of paragraphs.EXACTLY. WELL SAID

Being reflective rather than luminant, it is more often than not easer on the eye. TELL ME!

Most importantly, these sorts of cues don’t have to be taught explicitly; they come as baggage with the teaching of reading. VERY WELL SAID

I don’t know about you, but if I switch off my concious focus when reading on screen ME TOO. THAT IS WHY I STARTED THIKING ABOUT THIS. I HATE SCREEENING BUT I DO IT FOR EMAIL AND NEWS BITS BUT FOR ANYTHING LONG I MUST PRINT IT OUT AND READ IT ON PAPER. THAT got me to thinking,,,,

I have to go back and read again; it seems to require ‘active reading’. I HATE THESE SCREENS FOR READING. FOR VIDEOS AND MOVIES and HEADLINE NEWS, sure.BUT….

Reading a book on the other hand is more often refered to as ‘relaxing’... YES YES YES

I’d be very surprised if different part of the brain didn’t light up. TIS IS WHAT I WANT TO EXPLORE. OR I MEAN THIS IS WHAT I HOPE PHD SCIENTISTS WILL START EXPLORING SO WE HAV SOME REAL EVIDENCE…... PRO AND CON

Yes, Martin, you are so right. These comments look terrible on the screen. Someone needs to fix this. Before 2025!

http://zippy1300..blogspot.com has over 500 posts i made this year….

http://zippy1300.blogspot.com

CORRECTION

http://zippy1300.blogspot.com

This is fast becoming a two person discussion…..Screens are on the whole, terrible resolution. 72 dpi instead of 600dpi or higher. I’d like to experience some of the new hi res hi contrast tablets. I conducted research on reading from screen vs reading from paper. The results were inconclusive because my experimental design was terrible (I was young what can I say). Nevertheless the literature was pretty conclusive 20 years ago, and the common perspective is not any different. Recently saw a rubbish ‘raah raah’ video for social media that was packed full of ‘statistics have gone up by 150% since Facebook was invented’-type non facts. There was something in there that suggested that a high percentage of books sold on Amazon are Kindle books. Would like to see that substantiated.

Martin, hi….....two people are better than one…....SMILE…....i think i emailed you at your NVI office in NZ, was that you? Or did it misfire?........this is okay here to chat too….....you know the work of BILL HILL, former Microsoft design man, from Scotland, 60, he is my teacher on all this….see his website at www.billhillsite.com.........what i hear now is that e-books make up only 1 percent of books sold now….so it is NOT big yet….... just one percent…i got this info from DAVid Pogue the tech reporter at the New York Times….....ask him…....pogue@nytimes.com..........what i want to know is this…...do different parts of our brains light up when we read on paper compared to when we read on a screen?......this is the most important issue here…...coining a new word for reading on a screen like “screening” is not important….just a word that might help in studying the differences between reading and screening….but the real study must be the MRI brain scans…..i am sure that when we read on a screen, we are NOT reading the same way we read on paper….yes, we are reading, of course,......but it is markedly different, and we need to study in what ways….with MRI scans…...then we can discuss all this with more ammunition and info…..Drop me a line anytime at danbloom@gmail.com

1. Since reading on paper is very different from reading on screens,
do you think that at some point we might need a new word in English
for “reading on screens”, yes or no? YES

2. If YES, can you suggest any possible words for this new word: maybe
scanning? screen-reading? screening? any other words you can think of
that might work well here, words or terms? SCREADING [SCREEN READING]

3. A futurist inthe USA , a very well known person, tells me:
“Screening” is not a new term, but this might just be the time that it
catches on, given the imminent arrival of Apple’s iPad, and other
devices. The last time I heard it—screening—in this way—was
back in the late 1990s when the RocketBook and Softbook made their
debut, but the term didn’t do any better than the products did.”

do you agree with him that THIS might be the time SCREENING catches
on, based on your 2008 academic paper? Yes or no or comments? NO. Screening already has a common meaning in English

4. This fururist told me “This time around, screening is a clever and
useful term capturing the fact
that the experience reading on a screen is fundamentally different
from reading on paper. Not a priori worse or better; just different.”
Do you agree with him here, yes or no or comments? NO and YES
No, screening is hardly a clever and certainly not a useful term in
that it does not capture the fact stated but as a distinctly different
denotation already.
Yes, the experience reading on a screen is fundamentally different
from reading on paper.

5. This futurist also told me …”So definitley SCREENING is the right
word for the moment in terms of drawing
people’s attention to the vast literary shift about to wash over
us….Do you agree that we are now witnessing a vast literary shift
about to wash over us? YES NO MAYBE? COMMENTS? NO and I hope not!
SCREENING definitely is the not right word.
6. Is there any research yet that speaks about the way that different
parts of the brain light up when people read on paper compared to when
they read on a screen? Has anyone studied it this way yet? Can it be
studied this way? Do you think it is possible that different parts of
the brain light up when we read on paper vs reading on screens? Might
PHD people do research on this in the future.? how could one conduct
such research? with MRI machines? brain scans? I do not know, I do not
know, yes, yes, yes, yes.

7. Does reading on screens hamper or hinder our critical analysis
skills of what we are reading? HINDERS!

8. If in the future most reading is done on screens, from computers to
iPhones to Kindles to even textbooks on screens, could this hurt the
critical thinking skills of young people to think, analyze and asess
information? DEFINITELY

9. Do you think people will be reading on paper surfaces anymore in
the year 2050? in the year 2099? YES, YES!

10. Are you willing or ready to say goodbye to MR PAPER, and greet
the SCREEN AGE with a complete open-minded welcome?
No way in Hades. I’ll not say Good-bye and greet the so-called “Screen Age” until they pry my cold dead fingers from my book .