—While people have been reading on screens for decades, we are only a very few years into the use of handheld reading devices, and only a year along the improvement curve that kicks in with mass market adoption. Within a few years ereaders will match or exceed paper in resolution and size (think something that opens to newspaper size but folds down to an iPhone). At that point, and with purchased content on a dedicated reading device not an ad-filled web page, most of the panels objections disappear.
Rather than Professor Wolf’s comparison to ancient Greece, I think the more recent comparison can be seen in the migration of most writing to word processors. With the ability to spell check, erase or re-organize text on the fly, and leverage advanced typography, I doubt many writers would go back to their typewriters, or even less, quill and ink! The same thing will happen with reading. E-Books will give the ability to get word definitions, link to relevant sources, update material in real time, access recommendations and critique from your social network, *and* have all the worlds libraries with you wherever you go. No one will want to go back.
The article is titled ‘Does the brain like E-Books’. I think our brains will. As Dr Wolf also points out, reading is a learned, not a natural, trait. What *is* natural for our brains is to think and memorize in an associative manner - exactly the kind of model that can be supported with hypertext and an ereader.
The generation born a few years hence may experience their first books in fold-able plastic form printed with e-ink on electric screens. Thats when we’ll get our first glimmer of where this revolution is really heading…
Does the Brain Like E-Books? - Readers’ Comments - NYTimes.com
Interesting discussion on the NYTimes, worth reading. I’m copying over my comment.
