Have ebooks changed your reading habits?

[Froide]

Originally Posted by murg

These are the current words used.

Changes in technology, especially for long standing industries, are not always reflected new terms to describe the actions associated with that industry.

The phone industry has given us ring, dial, call, dial tone, tip and ring, answering machine, area code, and a plethora of other terms.

The film making industry still uses footage. Digital cameras still use film speed, F stops. You still snap a photo.

For cars, you can still crank the engine.

And with computers, you have thumb drives, floppy discs (which haven't been floppy for 30 years) and SSD drives.

The telephone-inspired phrase for informing on someone - to "drop a dime" - is still commonly used, though payphones are now few and far between, and I can't think of anyplace where one could make a payphone call for 10 cents. Here are some titles in Goodreads that include the phrase.

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by HarryT

In musical terms, it's the difference between playing a piece of music, and listening to someone else play it. Yes, the notes are the same, but they are very different experiences. One is active, the other passive.

If the point is to consume the content, does it matter? Listening to a piece of music isn't going to teach me to play music, but if my aim is to experience the music, I don't need to know how to play it. I'm not listening to an audiobook to learn to sight-read; I'm listening to absorb and enjoy the content.

Using my sense of hearing to read an audiobook is no more or less passive than using my sense of sight to read words on a page.

Originally Posted by patrickt

Of course not. Listening to audiobooks has the same technical skills as listening to drunks crying in their beer.

Where I worked we gave up trying to have police officers write reports. Their handwriting, spelling, and structure was horrible. It was so bad people laughed at the reports. Only a handful could write a decent report. All of these officers had high school degrees and some had college degrees. Generally, they couldn't write. So, we had them carry inexpensive tape recorders and dictate their reports to be typed by typists. I suppose in your world, they were still "writing" their reports.

Handwriting and spelling are separate issues. However, if they didn't understand how to structure content, I don't know that a tape recorder would really help. But, in any case, dictating into a tape recorder is definitely writing.

Right now, I could be dictating to a computer program that translates my speech to words on a screen. How would you know?

[patrickt]

Originally Posted by Catlady

But, in any case, dictating into a tape recorder is definitely writing.

Right now, I could be dictating to a computer program that translates my speech to words on a screen. How would you know?

How would I know? By the horrible errors in the document. Dictating into a tape recorder is no more writing than having some one read a book to you is reading. Having someone remove your appendix does not make you a surgeon.

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by patrickt

How would I know? By the horrible errors in the document. Dictating into a tape recorder is no more writing than having some one read a book to you is reading. Having someone remove your appendix does not make you a surgeon.

HUH? You know that I'm not sitting here dictating? You know that I'm using my fingers to type? (Is it really typing if one uses only two fingers, or does one need to use all ten?)

So who wrote those reports you referred to, if not the persons who dictated them?

If someone had said "Reading a book makes you an author," then your surgeon analogy might make some sense. But since no one has come even remotely close to claiming that, it's a completely idiotic comparison.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by soulfuldog

Now I'm confused about what people who have never seen or used the old telephones call all these things. You guys are making me feel old!

Old telephone systems guy here This industry still uses terms from Alex Bells days

Hook Switch (flash) The Earpiece hung on a hook (magneto set), which cut the connection.
Flash, caused the light above the jack, on the operator plugboard, to flash (and the annunciator to sound). Replaced by the handset cradle, replaced by a Off/End button

I remember when my home town switched from Operator to Dial (step x step) BOonton-8-0187W =>Deerfield 4-3618
The dial phones were Heavy. (the Exchanges used Names)

[patrickt]

I remember my grandmother having me dial the phone for her. I didn't find out until years later it was because she believed the phone could electrocute when you were dialing.

[shalym]

Originally Posted by patrickt

I remember my grandmother having me dial the phone for her. I didn't find out until years later it was because she believed the phone could electrocute when you were dialing.

Wait...what? So your grandmother was willing for you to get electrocuted in her place??

Shari

[cromag]

Originally Posted by theducks

Old telephone systems guy here This industry still uses terms from Alex Bells days

Hook Switch (flash) The Earpiece hung on a hook (magneto set), which cut the connection.
Flash, caused the light above the jack, on the operator plugboard, to flash (and the annunciator to sound). Replaced by the handset cradle, replaced by a Off/End button

I remember when my home town switched from Operator to Dial (step x step) BOonton-8-0187W =>Deerfield 4-3618
The dial phones were Heavy. (the Exchanges used Names)

And party lines, message units and Touch-Tone dial pads that did not have the * or # keys!

[patrickt]

Originally Posted by shalym

Wait...what? So your grandmother was willing for you to get electrocuted in her place??

Shari

I wasn't her only grandchild.

[twowheels]

Originally Posted by patrickt

I wasn't her only grandchild.

They're fungible. :-)

[copyrite]

Originally Posted by patrickt

I wasn't her only grandchild.

How many are left? LOL

[readerlover]

I used to almost never read until I got my Sony Reader and now I read like crazy!! Love ebook readers.

[Quelch]

I've always been a reader, belonged to the local library wherever I lived, lugging five or six books home was a stamina building exercise
Motorbikes and cars made that much easier

Now I have over two thousand eBooks in my computer and getting more from friends, with ten or twenty on my readers and tablets
I'm spoilt for choice, I mayn't live long enough to read them all !

[patrickt]

At my age, it's a given I won't live long enough to read all the ebooks I've downloaded but that doesn't stop me from adding more.

[dorotea]

The amount of time I spent reading has certainly increased since i got my e-reader, as well did my book collection!