Don’t tell us it isn’t true. Print readers love their book collection and they forever look down and pity the Digital readers. “You would never be able to know the petrichor of a newly bought book, or “I have a collection full of the best books from the best readers,” and if someone answers with the mention of a vast digital library with tons of books, the print readers will most likely frown.
Digital Readers are not too fond of kindles, and as per them, the reasons are aplenty. Skimming, Cognitive patience, and adverse impact on the eyes and brain are few of them. The study states that the more we read, digital, or automated texts on screen, the more we shift towards skimming.
What does skimming mean? This means that digital texts are making us more cognitively impatient, and less able to read deeper, lengthy texts. Our brain does benefit from reading deep texts as it increases concentration and provides us with weighty qualities such as internalized knowledge, analogical reasoning, and ability to infer and form perspectives.
People have argued to whether if it even matters as to how you read, as long as you do. But research has proven that there is a difference. The messages of the authors might be the same in both mediums, but these mediums do however convey the messages differently.
Also when going through the stats, it is evident that print books outsell e-books. And that is not surprising as most people, even today, would want to have tangible books and novels with them.
“A book reader admires his collection, and always wants to keep a record of what they’ve read. It’s not just about reading it, but re-reading it too; it’s about collecting, I guess, because people are completists aren’t they? They want to have that to indicate about them,” says Meryl Halls, Managing Director at the Booksellers’ Association in the U.K.
But digital readers love their E-Books, and there’s no way they’re going to be demeaned by the hands that hold real books! “It is an enjoyable reading experience, and the book’s availability as a Kindle and paperback gives me a choice to enjoy it in a format of my preference,” says one of the large sets of digital readers.
Also, some support that the interactive touchscreens, better time management and easily accessing information through hyperlinks, clear images, thousands and thousands of pages are solid leverages; print readers, however, see these “leverages” as distracting.
The chain of influences is an essential piece of understanding for the debates on reading on and off-screen. While we’ve been referring to books as our ultimate guide to world knowledge for centuries now, the sudden tab intervention hasn’t been welcomed with all open hands. But the readers like what they like, and as long as you’re reading, trust us you’re good. Get your curious glasses on, and get reading!
