Quote:
Originally Posted by ardeegee
when you are into the material, the medium doesn't matter.
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True indeed.
OTOH, the medium can impact whether you can get into the material in the first place. I don't mean the medium in the immediate sense - the paper vs. sandwiched glass issue. I mean the medium in the sense of being static or interactive. The former promotes focus, the latter promotes skimming.
Nothing wrong with skimming. I skim to find where I need to focus. But it seems pretty obvious that reading on computers makes it harder for me to focus, and interestingly, I've had two pieces of anecdotal evidence in the last two days supporting that point.
I have two sons in college. One remarked that he has learned that while reading on the computer, he cannot focus if he's connected to Facebook, because he keeps being "interrupted" by the need to check it. The other has lost his internet connection, and finds that it is easier to study without it.
This is one of the reasons I like having a dedicated ebook reader. I find it much easier to get into and stay in the material.
Bottom line is that I don't think that we
necessarily read differently in different reading environments, but that different environments are conducive to different ways of reading. We ought to be aware of that in making our reading choices.