Do we need a new word for "reading" on screens since it is a very different animal?

[danbloom]

Originally Posted by laurele

........, as a writer, I love the discussion about creating new words!

Well, then, Laurele, what word or term might you suggest for reading on screens, in order to differeniate it from reading on paper surfaces? Any writerly suggestions? All ideas welcome here.

[Good Old Neon]

Originally Posted by danbloom

Good Old Neon, I didn't say require in my question. I said "might a new word be beneficial?" I never said do we need or do we require? I just said "would, might, maybe, perhaps, a new word be beneficial?"

So a better answer from you would be "I pretty much loathe the suggestion that a new word for reading on an e-reader -- other than reading -- might be beneficial at all."

okay, I accept your opinion. Maybe such a word would not be beneficial. that's all i was asking. am asking still. Thanks for your comment, sir.

Would it also be beneficial to differentiate between eating with a fork vs. a spoon – how about chopsticks, what should we call that? Spooning? Forking? Chopsticking? How about driving a car vs. a truck? Should one be called caring while the other trucking? What if I’m watching a movie on a monitor vs. a television, shall we invent another word to differentiate the two? Hey, I’m monitoring District 9 tonight, do you want to stop by and join me? Should we invent a new word for sleeping in relation to whether it is on a bed or a couch? Would it be beneficial to come up with a new word for playing tennis depending upon whether it is played on clay or grass? How about the act of writing, would it be beneficial to distinguish between using a typewriter or a computer or a pen? If I told you that I’m writing a book, would it be beneficial if I were to tell you by what method?

And what of the the act of writing, would it be beneficial to distinguish between using a typewriter or a computer or a pen? If I told you that I’m writing a book, would it be beneficial if I were to tell you by what method? You might ask how, on a computer or a typewriter, and that’s a valid question, but if we’re going to arbitrarily invent a new word to differentiate between reading on a display vs. paper, shouldn’t we also then invent a new word to differentiate between writing using a typewriter or a computer or a pen?

At the moment, I’m reading Jonathan Lethem’s Chronic City, what difference does it make with respect to paper or e-reader? Does it add to or subtract from the experience of reading Chronic City? If so, how? What is more important, the fact that I’m reading it, or what I’m reading it on?

To the contrary, I think it would less beneficial, as everyone is familiar with the act and definition of reading, why muddy the water with a new word, when a perfectly acceptable one already exists?

[LDBoblo]

Originally Posted by Good Old Neon

...shouldn’t we also then invent a new word to differentiate between writing using a typewriter or a computer or a pen?

You mean like handwriting or typing?
I mean, I agree with you on the whole, but that one just needed addressing, especially since you wrote it twice in your post.

Oops, I mean you typed it twice.

[Jellby]

We need a new word for "reading on a screen" just like we need a new word for "asking whether we need a new word for 'reading on a screen'".

That said, I've always been surprised at how easily English speakers turn any noun into a verb.

[Good Old Neon]

Originally Posted by LDBoblo

You mean like handwriting or typing?
I mean, I agree with you on the whole, but that one just needed addressing, especially since you wrote it twice in your post.

Oops, I mean you typed it twice.

I was referring to the act of writing, as in “I’m writing a novel.”

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by Jellby

We need a new word for "reading on a screen" just like we need a new word for "asking whether we need a new word for 'reading on a screen'".

That said, I've always been surprised at how easily English speakers turn any noun into a verb.

you mean like in "I verbed the noun."

[kazbates]

Originally Posted by Lemurion

Good idea but I have better suggestion for the word: I suggest floconing from the French "flocons de mais" which means cornflakes.

(The impetus for the name comes from the fact that in Canada all cereal boxes are printed in English on one side and French on the other. Thus English-speaking parents would see the French side of the cereal box when their child was floconing instead of paying attention to his or her mother.)

Oh, Lemurion. I was so hoping you used "floconing" because you wanted to stay true to the *real* term for a dedicated reading device, the liseuse! Then you would be able to say, "I am floconing on my liseuse."

I'm sorry, I just couldn't resist.

As to the original topic: as many others have posted, creating a new word for something for which we already have a perfectly good word is redundant. Frankly, the English language already has enough redundant words which muddy up the works when trying to teach vocabulary to young children.

[eGeezer]

After having an evening at a soccer game, and a night of restful sleep to ponder this deep and pressing issue, I think I am finally able to seriously address what I find askew about this whole subject.

A new word or phrase for an action will evolve naturally for any given act when it's time has come. When that happens, it will just roll naturally off the tongue, and people will know what it means.

Any attempt at orchestrating its appearance before that time is merely artificial contrivance and manipulation in an attempt to "be the first one on the block" to use a new term which is neither necessary or desired except by the "inventor".

Scientists with a new process, or a new element, need a term to describe their discovery. In that case, it was not contrivance or an artificial attempt to force a new word on an old process. It IS something new.

Finding a new word for reading because it is being done on a new medium does not fit this need or scenario.

Movies are books presented using moving pictures on a strip of cellulose with a film of light-reactive chemicals. Videos are movies created using an electronic process on a plastic strip coated with a magnetic-reactive film.

Whether created on movie film or video tape, the result is still that you watch a "movie". Although you might differentiate the medium if you are going to watch it using a VCR or DVD player, you are still more likely to merely invite a friend over to watch a "movie".

Likewise, we will always "read" a book, and recognize it as a work created by a person transferring his thoughts to "written" words -- no matter what his medium to "write" that book. We may differentiate the presentation medium, if we feel it necessary, by saying we are reading a book, or an ebook (or paper or epaper, or magazine or emag), but we will always say we are reading it as long as the author says he has written it.

Just as you are reading this now even though when you finally fall asleep because I am going on and on and on, you will drool on a keyboard instead of a piece of paper.

[geneven]

The problem is based on an illusion. On the one hand we have plain old reading, on the other hand...

Wait a minute! What is plain old reading? Is skimming plain old reading? Sitting in a vehicle trying to find an address -- is that reading? How many kinds of reading are there already?

The answer that every read is a custom-made task, adapted to the purpose it has and the media available, time available, interest available, and other constraints. Reading on a screen is just one more (relatively inconsequential, compared to, say, reading a ransom note) kind of reading. You can't name all the kinds of reading because they are potentially infinite, as this thread shows. Some teachers say that you haven't really read something unless you've discussed it, and other teachers say that you haven't really read something unless you've taught it for years, and what you've been teaching batters its way into your brain. Reading is, after all, a kind of thinking, a custom-made kind, as is all thinking.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by montsnmags

(think "acoustic guitar" or "film camera")

Think "electronic book". And we are done. All is well in the world. We don't need to invent new words to describe reading on a screen.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Think "electronic book". And we are done. All is well in the world. We don't need to invent new words to describe reading on a screen.

I think in this context he meant "paper book" as opposed to the new standard for book which in the future just happens to be electronic.

[dmikov]

Originally Posted by eGeezer

A new word or phrase for an action will evolve naturally for any given act when it's time has come. When that happens, it will just roll naturally off the tongue, and people will know what it means.

Any attempt at orchestrating its appearance before that time is merely artificial contrivance and manipulation in an attempt to "be the first one on the block" to use a new term which is neither necessary or desired except by the "inventor".

Yes, the word appears when it's needed and accepted because it describes it the best, rolls of the tongue and more importantly needed.
Otherwise inventors pushing it, remind me of poets who raise their voice and repeat their poem to anybody in the hopes, that people will like it against all the evidence to the contrary.
Cry for help (attention) if you ask me.
:wave: lice-users

[ardeegee]

I am biased towards the Sony products, so I think the generic term for reading on an ebook reader will be "readering." But what if a minorty on this site get their way and the generic term for ebook reader becomes liseuse?

The first time someone unironicly uses the phrase "I'm readering a vook on my Nook liseuse" will be the final sign that we need to wipe our species from the face of the Earth and give something else-- possibly the squirrels-- a chance at building a sane civilization.

[Krystian Galaj]

Originally Posted by danbloom

PLEASE NOTE: the correct title for this thread should be and is:

Could we benefit from a new word for reading on screens to usher in the Screen Age?

Nope. Reading is reading. The language that adopted such a new word would lose some communicative value.

[montsnmags]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Think "electronic book". And we are done. All is well in the world. We don't need to invent new words to describe reading on a screen.

Yes, that's pretty much my point, though your example of "electronic book" is not the same as mine. My point was that we might in practice end up with a new word for the "old way" of reading, perhaps feeling the need to differentiate (in the same way we invented the retronym "acoustic guitar" to describe what was formerly just a "guitar" once the electric guitar came on the scene and established itself), but that the word "reading" would likely stay as the default for the dominant practice (eg. reading on a screen).

Cheers,
Marc