1500words draft essay

Books are something we have had around for centuries and will probably still have for years to come, but no one knows in which format or on what platform we will be reading them. Over the years, the physical book has definitely improved, both the paper and ink. However with advancement in technology, the screen has opened up a whole new door for us to read – be it on a kindle, smartphone or iPad. This change of print to screen, already has some of us on board enjoying this new platform, however some people just aren’t that convinced as of yet.

People are always on the go, from home to work, to a café or on some form of transport. As a pass time in such situations people tend to read books, magazines, advertisements and newspapers. But all of these seem to be somewhat bulky and in the way. Younger generations seem to have lost the interest in the physical printed material and are moving on in the technological direction. Some say that books will soon become antiques but I will try not to jump the gun myself and state such assumptions. Technological devices such as kindles, iPads, laptops and smartphones have helped the reading industry especially with tech-nerds, or even children who struggle with problems such as dyslexia, autism or other cognitive disabilities, especially when it comes to reading, writing and learning.

Physical print has its problems but then again, so does a screen. Physical books are somewhat nor comfortable or practical. They are bulky and most of the time requires both hands to hold and keep in place. If you are a person who is constantly on the go, this might resort to frustration, especially if the book is of an inconvenient size and/or weight.  When done from reading a book, advert, magazine or newspaper one simply puts it back onto their shelf or desk and doesn’t touch is again until they maybe read it again. It doesn’t cross many peoples mind to share it with others, others who do not have the commodity of owning that book perhaps. It’s also inconvenient to hold more than one book at a time. Carrying one or two books might be do-able but more could even end up with someone hurting themselves, for example their backs with Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI), such as with students at school.

I could obviously go on to criticize books or any other printed material for hours but this can all be seen from a different perspective – that of a book lover. There are people who love to get lost in their own world and forget about what is going on around them. People achieve this through music, others with books… of some sort. People seem to prefer the physical feel and touch of paper. It helps them feel a connection to what they are reading, a connection with the author, a sense of ownership. You also don’t need to fork out a wad of cash to purchase a simple book or magazine, as you would need for a kindle or technological device – even though that argument could be backed up with only having that major expense once. Kindles, iPads and laptops need power, and at some point they will run out. This is just an inconvenience in itself. If you’re on some sort of transport, in a power out or simply in a room with no power outage, there is no way of charging your device to read. With printed material on the other hand, this will never happen. The actual visual of knowing how far into a book you are, with seeing the amount of pages is also exiting and a relief. It’s a great feeling closing a book after 1000 pages and feeling that sense of relief and accomplishment more than just swiping your finger on a screen and realizing you’ve reached the end. There are also superb bookstores around the world, rooms filled with information and excitement. No such feeling can be felt through that folder in your e-book now can it? Even getting your favorite book signed by your favorite author is an experience in itself. Meeting them in person is always more fulfilling than downloading a scanned signatures or receiving a poster with their signature on it as it won’t be as authentic -But I won’t be getting into that as I might easily bob off topic.

One linked topic to this ‘shift from print to screen’ is the learning process of students in class. Is this shift from printed material to screen really helping them or is it just distracting them from the now? From what I’ve gathered so far it all depends on the student, whether or not s/he prefers to read on a tablet or from a printed source, is pretty much up to his/her personal taste.

Maryanne Wolf, a well-known researcher and professor on reading and learning, states in her book: ‘A Proust and a Squid’, that us humans are not born with the ability to read with some sort of circuit in our brain. Type is something man made and its recognition isn’t inbuilt in our bodies like that of vision and speach.

Our brain later on begins to associate and recognize words through networks in our brain, just like we learn to associate the difference between a cat and a dog or a truck and a car but classify them as both animals and vehicles. In fact, if we leap back a few centuries we see that lots of letters were associated to actual real life objects, such as the ‘S’ to a snake or ‘O’ as the sun.

The left and right pages of a book let us know more or less how much we have read and what we have left to read. It gives us an idea of where we stand with the text presented in front of us. When we turn a printed page, one after the other, we are somewhat leaving a tracker in our brain, letting us look back with a photographic memory as to where we read or saw something specific. On the other hand, when someone is scrolling or browsing through information on a screen, the reader must stop and re-focus on a starting point, making it harder to look back and remember where s/he saw that particular piece of information. Surely simulated pagination exists but this doesn’t mean that pressing a button to go to the next page is the same as flipping through the trail of pages yourself with your own fingertips. As mentioned in the article in my literature review by Bradon Keim, Psychologist Erik Wästlund carried out experiments with students to see who struggled the most when it came to reading – the students reading on paper or those on screen? The students reading on screen seemed to have ended up more tired and stressed. With further research Wästlund also concluded that students reading on paper seem to remember the information engaged for a longer period of time. According to Wästlund, students who read text on screen need to scroll through text and this caused lack of concentration for a new focal point and simply was more distracting.

 In another research carried out by Anne Mangen in 2013, where half the 72 10^th grade students, read text on paper and the other half, read the exact same text on a screen. Those who read on paper seemed to have gotten a better grasping of the text and scored better than those who read on screen.

Another major issue, which I managed to tweak through my essay, is feasibility.  Books are not that expensive to buy, but then again some are. A hardback print of a book is never cheap. There are the cost of it being made, being shipped to you, the authors cut and more. Magazines still cost money but it doesn’t mean they will be any cheaper as an online subscription to your kindle or iPad. Surely there aren’t costs of printing but there are the costs of research, design, editorial and creative costs towards that magazine. However sometimes you might benefit from a monthly to a yearly subscription which will cost less than buying the magazine in print, not to mention it being better and having those Issues on one hand held device rather than spread around your living room.

Many schools which are adopting the iPad, or any other hand held device are lucky to be able to fund it. Parents do not always agree with their children having €400 worth of technology which their child or another child may break. A cheaper alternative is either the iPad mini or a non-Apple product. Some schools have adopted to use iPads if they are brought in from home and if not, the students must stick to the older traditional ways of book-pen-paper. Typing on these devices might be frustrating for some and may slow down a student especially if needed for reading or writing heavy text.

Reference:

Bury, L., 2013. Young adult readers 'prefer printed to ebooks’. The Guardian, [online] 25 November. Available at: <http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/nov/25/young-adult-readers-prefer-printed-ebooks.> [Accessed 22 January 2015].

Fluent in 3 months, 2010. Books are dead - it's time to ditch 15th century technology. [online] Available at: <http://www.fluentin3months.com/ebooks/. > [Accessed 22 January 2015].

Gomez, J., 2009. Print is Dead: Book in Our Digital Age. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan

Hall, P., 2009. Sagmeister: Made You Look. New York: Harry N. Abrams.

Harry Ransom Center, 2013. Print Before Gutenberg. [online] Available at: < http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/exhibitions/permanent/gutenbergbible/history/#top> . [Accessed 12 January 2015].

Jabr, F. , 2013. The Reading Brain in the Digital Age: The Science of Paper versus Screens. Scientific American, [online] Available at: <http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/reading-paper-screens/> [Accessed 27 January 2015].

Keim, B. , 2014. Why the Smart Reading Device of the Future May Be ... Paper. WIRED, [online] Available at: http://www.wired.com/2014/05/reading-on-screen-versus-paper/. [Accessed 13 December 2014].

Kennedy, G., 2012. Using iPads with students with intellectual disabilities. Spectronics blog [blog] 15 may. Available at: <http://www.spectronics.com.au/blog/tools-and-resources/using-ipads-with-students-with-intellectual-disabilities/>  [Accessed 21 January 2015].

Novin, G., 2010. Chapter 3 - A Symbiotic Relationship : Books. A history of Graphic Design [blog] Available at: < http://guity-novin.blogspot.com/2010/02/history-of-graphic-design-books.html> [Accessed 23 January 2015].

Patient.co.uk, 2014. Repetitive Strain injury. [online] Available at: http://www.patient.co.uk/health/repetitive-strain-injury-leaflet  [Accessed 25 January 2015].

Skills You Need, n.d. Writing Skills. [online] Available at: <http://www.skillsyouneed.com/about.html.> [Accessed 27 January 2015].

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