Quote:
Originally Posted by danbloom
Okay, let me re-phrase the question, then, Kali Yuga. Would a new word, perhaps, maybe, be "useful" in order to help scholars and scientists better study the two reading modes?
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No.
We didn't need a separate word for typing when we shifted from typewriters to computers; we didn't need a separate word for phone calls when we shifted from land-lines to cell phones; we didn't need a new word for listening, or "listening to music," when we shifted from the pre-recorded era, to vinyl records and radio, to portable music players. I.e. It's not like "texting," where you have a whole new activity for which a pre-existing term fails to capture the unique nature of the activity. Reading is reading is reading.
And I'm confident that anyone doing research on the topic will be more than capable of properly distinguishing between ebooks and paper.