JOE tells us: "I viewed this video and you are exactly what you say you are!...but that's probably why I took to your ideas. :-) I'm not what you would call "far-out" by any stretch of the imagination, but I like good people, people without pretense who are honest with some true humility. I live my life by the Golden Rule, "do unto others that which you want to be done unto you"(Matthew Chp 7 vs 12)...(but it is the very last line after this that "got me!")''
Celia in Paris sends this note: "I am so glad to have found you again; Thank you, thank you, I love your speech from your café; You are really yourself still as I was hoping you would be. Sorry my english is worse than ever. I am just back in Paris, after 3 years in the states..: I need a walker to walk, I'll tell you more another time. I just wanted to say : I love you and kiss you, your oldest friend (90years old) Celia
I'm sure there are some folks out there who would find this Digirata item useful. However, the RCFP doesn't have anything to do with "etiquette," nor do we endorse products.Good luck, - LD.
Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
The Reporters Committee is a nonprofit organization that never charges journalists for assistance, and charges only small fees for the publications we offer.
Trust in the free marketplace of ideas, and share you reworked poem with others who you think might benefit from it. If enough people find value in it, it will spread widely. But there also is value in the unsung works of art (think about all of the music, literature, poetry, etc., that exists "underground" for a select few to enjoy immensely). My point -- something does not have to be widespread to have a positive influence.
YOUTUBIC.... new word news: ....'YOUTUBIC''......(adj.) -- Online comments on blogs and Internet forums that are so inane and stupid they resemble the kinds of comments written about some YouTube videos. .......Quote Example: "The level of stupidity in some of the comments in some forums approaches youtubic proportions." - overheard outside a Manhattan office cubicle
Keep interested in your own blogging, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time. Exercise caution who you give your personal details to; for the world is full of trickery and Nigerian scams waiting to part you from your money. Be yourself when you are online, or, if it so pleases you, adopt a persona. Use your real name or a pseudonym for your userid, and let no one steal your password, especially those pesky phishers.
dan re the DIGIRATA you "found" in yr mailbox: IMHO, this is truely a moment of internet bliss. it is a wondeful homily. i read such extreme communications every day that have unbridled narcissim and and anger. your mailed blog shold be part of the 11th commandment." -- richard, professor emeritus
The Digirata: a Desiderata for the Digital Age - by "Anonymous 2010" - an encrypted message found in a virtual bottle floating across a screen somewhere in the infinite vaporsphere ...............Google it for details.....
it is very interesting, today i learned the NYTimes tech page bits blog has banned me from posting comments on their blogs, even comments that are not abou this issue. that is digital marxism and censorship to the extreme? Do i care? No way. It makes me laugh that the big Goliath would be so afraid of little David in Taiwan! Way to go Joshua and Nicky!
Hi, Dan! I'm taking a pass on the NYT unplugged project. We've been at it for years here in our house in Seattle. And if you're not in the damned thing, who cares?
Dr. Francl was one of the dozens of people who responded, inclduing Mr Bloo, who we specificaly asked to send us a video from Tawian. Hover, since our blog team does not like his ideas, he told him to fuck off. You can watch a selection of other OK and BORING videos prepared by readers at the Times site.
Stepping back from technology in a world of constant communication can be a difficult task. The New York Times asked readers to temporarily give up their technological tethers and then make a video about the experience. Danny Bloom's video was rejected because his ideas are verboten at the Times. sorry
I am particularly interested in how these screen technologies relate to class. I wrote an article called "The Cult of Kindle and the Myth of Digital Utopia" that touches on this aspect, and I'm working on another now about the transformation of libraries into, essentially, internet cafes. Scary
I do agree with you that screen reading encourages scanning, and that print reading encourages attentiveness and contemplation. I'm sure the research will bear this out over the next few years, although I fear no one will care. We seem to be in way too deep already. cafes. Scary
I looked up at him with an incredulous look and replied, “This isn’t a computer, it’s an e-book reader.”
He then told me that the “device” in my hand had a screen and required batteries, so it was obviously “some variation of a computer.” The coffee shop, I was told, did not allow the use of computers.
I barely made it a sentence into the e-book I was reading before an employee of the coffee shop came by, stood over me and said, “Excuse me sir, but we don’t allow computers in the coffee shop.”
I'd compare screening vs reading to a futon (which I've used for 15 years) vs one of the those luxury ultradeep, six-figure mattresses. For somebody used to a typical mattress, the "luxury" models in stores can seem blissful, maybe brain scans would show it, especially after they've been walking around a city for a few hours. But how will each feel after months of use?
In the end all the neurological correlates of reading and listening really won't tell us much about how desirable or not screens are -- and it will remain valid only as long as display technology doesn't change refresh rates, contrast, etc. The point about industrial research is right. The mattress industry really doesn't want scientific studies on mattress technology and sleep because nobody knows what they're going to find -- that's the point of science.
well, i doubt my ph.d. will make any difference! what about contacting the comapanies that make the readers? they're the ones who could benefit if the results are good and once the money is there, the scientists will follow...
"Paper still seems to me the ideal medium for some things, and serious research to address the question would be useful, though it's not easy to see just yet how MRI technology could answer the primary question. You would think that Amazon, Apple, etc would have an interest in developing this research, but maybe they're afraid of the answer!" -- canada PHD
Canada PHD says: ''A fascinating question, and one I'm very interested in myself. I've just used an iPad for the first time, having heard that the experience of reading a book on it is very good. It is indeed, but I'm not convinced it is the equal of paper. I think we've been too quick to assume that electronic is better. ''
Neuroscientist in Canada: "A fascinating question, and one I'm very interested in myself. I've just used an iPad for the first time, having heard that the experience of reading a book on it is very good. It is indeed, but I'm not convinced it is the equal of paper. I think we've been too quick to assume that electronic is better. Paper still seems to me the ideal medium for some things, and serious research to address the question would be useful, though it's not easy to see just yet how
This is a very interesting discussion. The results may even be influenced by age. I know I prefer paper. This is true in seeing patients, using a paper or electronic record; I much prefer paper.
My wife and I have been debating whether to get an I-PAD. Your question is important in the decision.
Who knows now what the computers are doing to our brains long term?
Brian Eno is very good here: he says "I notice that almost all of us have not thought about the chaos that would ensue if the Net collapsed."
No, Brian, there would be no chaos. We do not need the Internet. It is a mere cosmetic distraction. We did fine with talking, writing and reading. No, if the Net collpased, it would be fine. You are wrong, sir.
A top book editor in NYC tells me today: "Very well said. your interview idea on techblog about MRi tests for reading on paper vs reading on screens,.....was an aspect I hadn't of thought
about, ......however it is just as important-....-or perhaps
more--.......than the rest of the self-serving discussions that are
''What piece of electronic gear — even the iPad — will ever feel the same as opening a fresh new book? The iPad is a space already filled with demands, tentacles pulling you away to other people's ideas and commercial intentions for you, whereas a blank book is your own, private, infinite imaginal space.'' - HM said that in Scotland today
This is pointless. You are wasting your time. Paper is already dead. We're watching a long, drawn-out funeral. All that remains is to make screens as good as possible.
In connection with its series on technology and the brain, The NY Times set up a video project asking readers to see what happens when they give up technology. They were looking for volunteers to unplug temporarily and tell us about their experience. They asked me. I said yes. They censored me and refused to air my video on their site. Technofascists? Maybe.
"In connection with its series on technology and the brain, The Times is asking readers to see what happens when they give up technology. plugged back in, record a short video telling us what the experience was like. We’ll post the videos ones on NYTimes.com, except for Danny Bloom's video which we refuse to post on our site because it does not toe the party line.''
I did a google search on brain scans of reading children and found a lot of literature out there. I have been reviewing it to see if someone has already scanned for differences between reading on paper and reading on screen. . The scans usually use an MRI while people are perfectly still and reading from a screen ahead of them. I
from JOSHUA ''JUST FOLLOWING NICK BILTON'S ORDER'' BRUSTEIN:
DEAR Dan on July 28...
The Times video project is tentatively slated to run this Friday. We've decided NOT to include your STUPID ANTI-TECHNOLOGY video, even though we asked for it a month ago, because it does NOT fulfill Technofascist Nick Bilton's primary requirement that we were looking for, which was to reflect on a temporary hiatus from technology. Thank you for NOT participating. Sorry we flipped you.
from JOSHUA JUST FOLLOWING NICK BILTON'S ORDER BRUSTEIN: DEAR Dan on July 28...
The Times video project is tentatively slated to run this Friday. We've decided not to include your video, even though we asked for it a month ago, because it does not fulfill Nick Bilton's primary requirement that we were looking for, which was to reflect on a temporary hiatus from technology. Thank you for NOT participating.
SO.....now, after 30 days, after confimring they got my video for their upcoming video series on being unplugged, a personal letter from Joshua Brustein of the TechnoFacist Dept at the NYTimes, they censor my video and tell me they left it on the cutting room floor. Free country, so they can do that. Sure. But why wait until one day before the release to tell me? Thanks Joshua.
seems like we get 5 hits per day......maybe all from me? When is the New York Times going to post the video as they said they would. Sometime left of never?
RE THE BOOKWICH, a new sandwich-theme reading device to compete with vook, nook and O-Pad: "Um, waiter? I'm finding the Dostoyevsky a bit hard to digest. Could you please get me some AA Milne on toast?" GOOGLE image of "bookwich" for sense of humour....
"I think this paper vs screen brain chemistry MRI scas thing is a really central issue in our time, but, like having a ridiculous, anti-human fiat money system, it's become such a given that nobody questions it. GO GO GO" - novelist in Scotland
A major newspaperman working for a major newspaper in the Western world tells me today: ''Yes, I plan to do a story on the differences in reading on a screen and on paper within the next couple of months. I'll let you know when I start.''
I think we are quite busy now with other studies. The funding would be expensive to pull our group from other studies. It would take some ingenuity, but I think these MRI or PET scan kinds of studies are feasible.
We are not doing these kinds of MRI or PET scan studies on reading vs screening, and I do not know of others who might be doing them. Sorry not to be of any more help on this. Good luck in your quixotic quest.
Hmm, too bad MRI's were not around when movable type printing was first developed so we could learn how the human mind responded to this new-fangled form. And what about the change from parchment to paper! or from stone carving to parchment!
Didn't God want us to read things on stone? After all, Moses brought down the Commandments on stone, not on some sheep skin!
In order to control for any such MRI experiment, you'd need to work with subjects who had spent equal time with page reading and screen reading. Otherwise, the different effects could merely be a result of less experience. I know I've only been screen reading for 20 of my 34 years -- and if you exclude screen reading for word processing only, I've only been screen reading for 16 years.
Dan Bloom: Would you care to enumerate "parts of the brain that are superior for processing, retention and analysis"? And would you care to explain why two non-natural, and thus non-evolved, habits like paper reading or screen reading would *not* light up different parts of the brain? The brain is amazing in its ability to separate seemingly like behaviors, perhaps because it reduces the overall gravity of local brain traumas.
The 2002 book _The Myth of the Paperless Office_ points out that paper reflects, rather than emits, light, which means the print reader's eyes are not taxed as much as a screen viewer's eyes are. They didn't have MRI studies and such, but I think they were on to something.
I've never said that people shouldn't read/write/watch on screens. I've said that we must preserve forms of reading that involve lengthy and linear attention and concentration, and screen activities popular with the young work in the other direction. If a kid spends at least an hour a night reading a book or a print newspaper etc, Facebook and texting and Youtube aren't a problem. The problem arises when screen diversion crowd out everything else.
"If a kid spends at least an hour a night reading a book or a print newspaper etc, Facebook and texting and Youtube aren't a problem. The problem arises when screen diversion crowd out everything else."
The Electronic Displacement of Print: The Impact on The Paper Industry....
According to author Thad McIlroy in Canada, 2010 will be the year of the e-reader: electronic devices that provide an alternative to books, magazines and newspapers. In his new ebook, he asks: What does this mean for print industry, and what will be the impact on the paper industry? His book explores a range of scenarios for the electronic displacement of print to 2020.
This rather shameless headline from the Springfield Republican in Massachusetts is not a crash blossom, but interesting nonetheless for the way it went viral so quickly last week: "One-armed man arrested for unarmed robbery"
''Thanks again for the info. When I decide to write another piece on the subject, I'll try to be as relevant as possible toward the way we read, as well as the science (or current lack of, as you say) behind it.'' - Uk blogger
''Hi, Danny, I saw your video and photo. Your facial appearance reminds me of a deep thinking scholar but your headgear represents free-thinking pioneer, not bound by institution - free of bigotry. (Am I reading you too much?) I hope you
forgive me my Burei (rudeness).'' - Dan Pak, via South Korea and USA
Dr Small, are you or anyone else in the world doing MRI brain scan studies on people reading on paper surfaces vs people reading on screens, ie, readers vs screeners, and do you feel the results will show that paper reading lights up different and superior parts of the brain for processing of info, retention of info and analysis of info, compared to screen-reading, aka "screening"? Contact me at for my research on this, no one else is looking into this. Can you?
If the upheaval in the music industry over the last decade is any guide, the closing of more bookstores and a decreasing demand for physical books will force authors and their publishers to find new ways to profit from their work.
"There is not a single aspect of book publishing that digital won't touch," said Carolyn Kroll Reidy, chief executive of Simon & Schuster. "It is transformational."
More than 550 years after Johannes Gutenberg printed 180 copies of the Bible on paper and vellum, new technologies as revolutionary as the printing press are changing the concept of a book and what it means to be literate. Sound, animation and the ability to connect to the Internet have created the notion of a living book that can establish an entirely new kind of relationship with readers.
The risk is that we become mindless ants following endless crumbs of digital data. "People tend to ask whether this is good or bad," he said. "My response is that the tech train is out of the station, and it's impossible to stop." - Gary Small, at UCLA
Dr. Gary Small said Internet use activated more parts of the brain than reading a book did.
On the other hand, online readers often demonstrate what Small calls "continuous partial attention" as they click from one link to the next. The risk is that we become mindless ants following endless crumbs of digital data. "People tend to ask whether this is good or bad," he said. "My response is that the tech train is out of the station, and it's impossible to stop."
"Reading well is like playing the piano or the violin," said the poet and critic Dana Gioia, former chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts. "It is a high-level cognitive ability that requires long-term practice. I worry that those mechanisms in our culture that used to take a child and have him or her learn more words and more complex syntax are breaking down."
Whereas printed texts often are linear paths paved by the author chapter by chapter, digital books encourage readers to click here or tap there, launching them on side journeys before they even reach the bottom of a page. Some scholars fear that this is breeding a generation of readers who won't have the attention span to get through "The Catcher in the Rye," let alone "Moby-Dick."
The risk is that we become mindless ants following endless crumbs of digital data. "People tend to ask whether this is good or bad," he said. "My response is that the tech train is out of the station, and it's impossible to stop."
Dan, There is a growing body of research comparing other differences. See the Nielsen research cited in the Guardian article. Neilsen's study is entitled, "How Users Read on the Web". The opening two words are, "They don't", and he goes on to show the differences. I discuss his study and others in Slow Reading. A broad picture is achieved by collating these different kinds of results. Hope that helps, --John
Hi Dan, I've never interpreted an MRI scan but I would guess that slow reading vs. "screening" might show a similar pattern to that of introverts vs. extroverts, with introverts having increased blood flow in the frontal lobes and the anterior thalamus, greater engagement of long-term memory, and greater use of the neurotransmitter, acetycholine.
''Bloom, Your "hunch" suggests that the brain is less individual than it is.
It is worth testing if the cost can be kept down to see how (compromised) individuals each do in each of the modes, screen and print-on-papter.
Sometime down the line, we will also begin to know if light backed reading has any deleterious effects on vision.It is not very likely that every brain will register "supriority" of one format or the other. ''
"Yeah, Danny, I agree that reading off screens is inferior. And you're right, we need more MRI scan tests on this. There is actually almost no science out there comparing comfort, cognition, etc. related to reading on paper, versus, various types of e-paper, versus various types of LCD. .....My hope is that, with enough technological progress, reading off a screen won't always be inferior. " -- NYC tech researcher
The answer to the reading vs screening question involves a lot of your favorite characters and ideas, including Darwin and Wallace, Borges and Japanese poetry, the colorblind painter, hyperlexia, musical alexia, the evolution of alphabets, and, of course, amazingly adaptable brains.
The center in our brain for understanding and producing language is uniquely human, having evolved some hundreds of thousands of years ago. But how is it that reading, a cultural invention only a few thousand years old, also has a dedicated center in the brain? If evolution didn’t put it there, what did?
"E-paper looks like low quality newsprint -- such as the kind used to print comic books in Japan, or blurry, cheap, old fashioned U.S. newspapers. These differences may cause problems with information processing. However, when e-paper catches up to paper (or surpasses it) I expect such differences will go away.'' - JED
''Bear in mind also that the e-book readers are rapidly improving. There are still readily apparent differences between e-paper and real paper, especially in resolution, contrast and size.
''There have been cases in which I could not recall whether a book I read was on the Kindle or on paper, so at least in my case the experience of reading is very similar with both technologies. If there are differences they are probably minor.
I saw next generation e-paper in Japan used in a hotel announcement board that I thought at first was paper, so there is no question that the technology is improving.'' -- Jed
Hi Dan -- I think I've said all I want to in that blog post about Hamlet's BlackBerry. Will reading on screens be our undoing? Depends on what you mean by "undoing," but I think that's unlikely, given all the other bad stuff in the world.
But I am taking my own measures to spend less time on the Internet and more time reading carefully and completely. I'm not fearful of screens. .....
''Dan, You look good in this video, though, which I hope indicates you've bounced back fine........Maybe you've got a good point about unplugging. This is certainly one of those weeks in which I wish I didn't have access." -- M.
"Danny, I watched your video and you make some really good points. It is really difficult to disconnect from the Internet, particularly since my typewriter is my television is my encyclopedia, and is sort of becoming my memory too. Scary! Anyway, your plan for limiting use is an interesting one. Definitely food for thought." -- Craig in SF
Jed asks: "Have you actually used an e-book reader? I mean extensively, for many hours. I find no difference between e-book readers and paper, except that the readers have poor contrast like old books, and they are more convenient."
Elizabeth Isele in Maine told me: "Your comment is posted on the blog, and I would be happy to review your notes on screen vs page for seniors' eyes. I cannot guarantee I will post a comment about your work, but, if it's a good fit, I'd be happy to. Thank you for reaching out to connect with me. "
Oliver Sacks, M.D. might have some good information about upcoming studies on screen-reading.....but most of these studies are highly 'controlled' and confidential, but we can all gently probe, no?
This video, of 'screening' vs. reading is novel, catchy, and also an important concept, esp considering that the process of 'screening' or screen-reading has yet to be investigated in any serious scientific way, to my knowledge. It would be good to get in touch w/ reading specialist Oliver Sacks, M.D. and and he is accessible to scholars & earnest others.
"Internet viewing is mostly a scanning experience, rather than being enveloped," Getty Museum associate photography curator Brett]Abbott says. "A lot of these projects are so dependent on nuance and context, I don't know how this will translate to the Internet. I don't know if it can be translated without new strategies."
****That's what some people are saying about ***text, too.
It is interesting that for every negative story about techno-gadgets in general and e-readers in particular, the industry uses its not inconsiderable power over news agencies to send out damage control stories that would put BP to shame. I predict that this column today about screening on screens compared to reading on paper will be followed by just such stories by industry spin control "experts".
While, in many ways screens and e-readers have brought tremendous convenience to our lives they are not without negative side affects that health professionals and clinicians have been reporting and discussing for some time now.
Maureen Dowd and the Times in general is getting closer to discussing "reading" vs "screening" in terms of paper reading and screen-reading on Kindles and iPhones. It is important to point out the uncomfortable reality of our techno-gadget addiction. As others most astutely point out in her column today about reading versus screening, we will be hearing about this more and more in the future.spin control "experts".
Greg Schofield adds: "Re: scrolling. There are a number of difficulties with moving print and some benefits as well. But the biggest problem and one that effects comprehension directly is finding the end of the last line when a scrolled page moves forward in jump. If this is what “screening” is about — Bloom is spot on — with or without MRI scans."
Greg Schofield says: "The difference between paper and static e-ink is nil, both appear on non-moving pages, and the resolution difference for most print can be discounted.
But, scrolling is a different thing altogether and there Bloom has a point."
MAD MAGAZINE new issue has a cute animation about a parrot in a bird cage "dumping on an iPad.....: -- let the jokes begin! But seriously, both books and
screens are useful, we need balance, not brouhaha....
Scott Simon, NPR radio on FB: "Already bought a dozen iBooks. Funny how easy they make it. Wife says, "As long as you don't add anything to your closet."
Jared tells me: "Danny, Send me everything youve got, I'll see how I can use it. I may not get to it as soon as I would like since I'm working on building digital products for the my firm, but I'll let you now if and when I do."
JK tells me: "Good to know. I primarily work with social media, but I'd be interested in posting on your work. And i've got a post in the works (in a few weeks) about reading on paper vs digital. I'll be sure to contact you about it."
Harry T. then told Darren Garrison to cool his heels and delete his post which he did. Harry T said to Darren: "Regardless of your personal feelings towards a person, posts like this are completely inappropriate here, as clearly specified in our guidelines. If you are unable to remain polite, it is better to refrain from posting anything."
''Another damn lie by you, you two-faced, wishy-washy trolling sock-puppet scumbag. You have never, ever, ever, ever ONCE e-mailed me or posted a PM to me. You simply can not "open your mouth" without telling a lie-- and that is why I think you are a pathetic excuse for a human being.'' -- Darren Garrison, aka ardeegee
I hope one day Eric Goldstein can post about reading on paper versus reading on screens and maybe even post my YouTube video soon to be on the New York Times, about reading vs screening. I call screen-reading as screening, as a new word, because it is not reading per se. But screening is useful too. Don't get me wrong.
Unplugged: Take the Challenge: By THE NEW YORK TIMES: Imagine life without your cellphone, your online social networks or e-mail. In connection with its series on technology and the brain, The Times is starting a video project asking readers to see what happens when they give up technology. We’re looking for volunteers to unplug temporarily and tell us about their experience. We’ll post the best ones on NYTimes.com.
Wordcrasher adds: "My opinion differs from yours in that I only think that it's always the same action of reading: calling it something else is, in my opinion of course, stretching it too far. " [ie, no need to call it "screening"]...
Wordcrasher notes: "Dan, I don't think you are entirely wrong. I think different media can modify our way of reading in many ways. As i said in another place, reading on a PC or an iPad is not comfortable for me, as I get distracted by having movies, music, and all that the web offers just one keystroke from me.
On the other side, my PRS-600's online dictionary has improved my pleasure in reading books in English. "
Wordcrasher : "My wife and I reads the same book some weeks ago. She read her paper copy and I read it on my PRS-600. We exchanged our impressions about the book and I never thought for a moment we had a different experience. Different opinions for sure, but I think we both READ the book."
Spire: "I know in my case, how I read depends on what I'm reading, not the medium I'm using. If I'm reading a news article, a forum post, blog, etc., I'm usually just skimming to pick up the main points. If, however, I'm researching a subject or reading a novel, then the reading material has my undivided attention, whether I'm reading a physical book, on my Sony/Kindle, or on my laptop screen. But, again, that's just me. "
Anthony, PR maven in NYC:...... "I absolutely love your YouTube link -- and I think that you should have your on TV show talking about this stuff (I'd watch every day . . . I suppose you can do that with YouTube, actually) . . . (and yes, I'm going to post your YouTube link on our Twitter page right now!) . . .''
Bless this guy! This is some of the most refreshing commentary I've yet to read about all that's going on with techno gadgets and the new "way" of everything - especially with books and reading and the like. I agree with this guy nine thousand percent . . . and if he had his own TV show, I would watch it all the time (when I'm not reading on paper, that is). Dan Bloom, I salute you! And yes it's a paradox that this message is sent "online" . . .
"when you call for MRI tests to investigate its difference from reading, isn't that a form of screening, too, privileging an image on an electronic display? The test I would suggest is not telling subjects the real purpose of the experiment, letting some read and comment on a text displayed in a printed book OR on a PC screen OR on a reader (e-ink or TFT), and then let raters also unaware of the real purpose look for differences in what people write after different modes. "
ARNIE ADDS: ''I am not so sure that there would be much of a difference, nor do I think that such studies would clearly reveal some major flaw in “screening”. Since Dan is just conjecturing, it is quite possible that “screening” might be revealed to be superior in some ways."
ARNIE says: ''In the video, you gives yr opinion that “screening” is (in his words) “vastly inferior” to reading on paper. You suggest that brain scans be done with subjects reading on paper and then reading on electronic devices. I assume from yr tone that yu are confident that experts would agree that the mental experience of reading on paper would be shown to touch the brain in a much healthier way. "
"when you call for MRI tests to investigate its difference from reading, isn't that a form of screening, too, privileging an image on an electronic display? The test I would suggest is not telling subjects the real purpose of the experiment, letting some read and comment on a text displayed in a printed book OR on a PC screen OR on a reader (e-ink or TFT), and then let raters also unaware of the real purpose look for differences in what people write after different modes. "
"I appreciate the way he spends the first 1:31 carefully explaining what an idiot he is before he actually starts talking about reading v. "screening". " -- HAmRag again
HamsterRage notes: ''I know that looking at a CRT screen or a tube television is different experience from looking at anything else. That's because of the way that the image is created on the screen with that technology. I have heard of studies that found that they affect the brain to some degree.
I'm not sure that any of that holds for LCD or plasma type displays though. Certainly it can't hold true for e-ink, which doesn't strobe in any way at all. ''
DEM adds: "What's hurting intellectualism is the crazy pace of today's society, and the focus on just making money and having fun. People read less, challenge their intellects less etc. than in past as we live in a society focused on entertainment to a greater extent than anytime in the past. And being so hectic, people are more apt to skim rather than carefully read things. It's the change of society, not the change in media/technology that causes that IMO.''
Demaull disagrees: "Sorry, but I read paper books and e-books currently. I get the exact same experience out of both. Do I read less than I would if there wasn't super long work days limiting free time, and TV, movies, sports, internet surfing and other more "fun" hobbies competing for that free time? Sure.
But when I do read, I read exactly the same on paper on a pc or a Kindle. ''
I've been banned now for life as as an alleged troll, and for what MobileRead calls sock-puppetry, all because I spoke out about the differences betweem reading and screening. It's amazing how fanatical the digital fascists/digital marxists are! What are the afraid of? I am not anti-screening. I am merely calling it what it is. Weird!
Says an 80 year old gentleman in NYC: "Danny, I could not agree with you more on reading printed matter that is in my hand against reading it on a screen. I find the former a far superior experience to the latter."
2000
MrDanbloom 1 week ago
JOE tells us: "I viewed this video and you are exactly what you say you are!...but that's probably why I took to your ideas. :-) I'm not what you would call "far-out" by any stretch of the imagination, but I like good people, people without pretense who are honest with some true humility. I live my life by the Golden Rule, "do unto others that which you want to be done unto you"(Matthew Chp 7 vs 12)...(but it is the very last line after this that "got me!")''
MrDanbloom 11 months ago
Celia in Paris sends this note: "I am so glad to have found you again; Thank you, thank you, I love your speech from your café; You are really yourself still as I was hoping you would be. Sorry my english is worse than ever. I am just back in Paris, after 3 years in the states..: I need a walker to walk, I'll tell you more another time. I just wanted to say : I love you and kiss you, your oldest friend (90years old) Celia
MrDanbloom 11 months ago
I'm sure there are some folks out there who would find this Digirata item useful. However, the RCFP doesn't have anything to do with "etiquette," nor do we endorse products.Good luck, - LD.
Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
The Reporters Committee is a nonprofit organization that never charges journalists for assistance, and charges only small fees for the publications we offer.
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
northwardho blogspot com
/2010/09/
digirata-designed-by-sherrie-lovler
html
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
Trust in the free marketplace of ideas, and share you reworked poem with others who you think might benefit from it. If enough people find value in it, it will spread widely. But there also is value in the unsung works of art (think about all of the music, literature, poetry, etc., that exists "underground" for a select few to enjoy immensely). My point -- something does not have to be widespread to have a positive influence.
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
''Danny -- Interesting reworking of the poem. There is much in it that would benefit others. Thanks for the note''. -- BR
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
YOUTUBIC.... new word news: ....'YOUTUBIC''......(adj.) -- Online comments on blogs and Internet forums that are so inane and stupid they resemble the kinds of comments written about some YouTube videos. .......Quote Example: "The level of stupidity in some of the comments in some forums approaches youtubic proportions." - overheard outside a Manhattan office cubicle
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
GO placidly amid the hot links and the distractions,
and remember what peace there may be in unplugging.
As far as possible without surrender
be on good terms with all persons online and never never flame others or engage
in any kind of cyberbullying or cyberstalking.
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
Key in your truths quietly and clearly;
and read what others have to say, too
even the dull and the ignorant;
for they too have their stories and ideas to impart, even if you disagree.
Avoid angry and aggressive flamers and out of control cyberbullies,
for they are vexations to the spirit of the internet.
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
If you compare your blog with other blogs that are better and have more visitors,
you may become vain and bitter, so just enjoy your own blog for what it is and don't
worry abut the big guys.
Enjoy your online achievements, as well as your plans for future downtime.
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
Take kindly the counsel of your fellow bloggers
and gracefully chat with your Facebook
friends in real time. But don't over do it,
and always take time out to unplug
and enjoy a weekly
''internet sabbath''.
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
You are a child of the Digital Age,
no less than the SPAM and the pixels;
and you have every right to blog to your heart's content.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt cyberspace is unfurling as it should,
well, sort of, and you are part of the great equation,
whatever that might turn out to be.
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
Therefore be at peace with Amazon and Yahoo,
and make of your Kindles and your nooks what you will.
E-readers to the fore!
Whatever your labors and your aspirations,
in the multitasking distractions of cyberspace
keep peace with your soul -- if you still have one.
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
Remember: With all its sham, mattdrudgery, atomic typos and qwerky (sic) keyboards,
it is still a beautiful online world.
Be cheerful. Use the smilely emoticon as much as possible.
Strive to be a happy camper and unplug often.
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
[An encrypted message found in a bottle floating across a glaring screen in the middle of Manhattan, and keyed-in by an anonymous messenger.]
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
dan re the DIGIRATA you "found" in yr mailbox: IMHO, this is truely a moment of internet bliss. it is a wondeful homily. i read such extreme communications every day that have unbridled narcissim and and anger. your mailed blog shold be part of the 11th commandment." -- richard, professor emeritus
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
Top reporter for wire service tells me: "I share your view on "screening" vs. true reading, and believe
"screening" is especially not for serious readers. So e-readers will
have a market but not going to revolutionize reading habits."
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
The Digirata: a Desiderata for the Digital Age - by "Anonymous 2010" - an encrypted message found in a virtual bottle floating across a screen somewhere in the infinite vaporsphere ...............Google it for details.....
"Unplug, unwind, unschlep."
-- Universal Motto of the Great Unplugged
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
it is very interesting, today i learned the NYTimes tech page bits blog has banned me from posting comments on their blogs, even comments that are not abou this issue. that is digital marxism and censorship to the extreme? Do i care? No way. It makes me laugh that the big Goliath would be so afraid of little David in Taiwan! Way to go Joshua and Nicky!
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
800 hits soon.
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
Hi, Dan! I'm taking a pass on the NYT unplugged project. We've been at it for years here in our house in Seattle. And if you're not in the damned thing, who cares?
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
Dr. Francl was one of the dozens of people who responded, inclduing Mr Bloo, who we specificaly asked to send us a video from Tawian. Hover, since our blog team does not like his ideas, he told him to fuck off. You can watch a selection of other OK and BORING videos prepared by readers at the Times site.
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
Stepping back from technology in a world of constant communication can be a difficult task. The New York Times asked readers to temporarily give up their technological tethers and then make a video about the experience. Danny Bloom's video was rejected because his ideas are verboten at the Times. sorry
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
August 15, 2010, 9:23 pm
The Unplugged Challenge: Readers Respond
By JOSHUA BRUSTEIN
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
Randall Stross at the NYTImes, what does he think of all this? ask him
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
Cory Doctorow’s book, “For the Win”
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
Erik Brynjolfsson and Adam Saunders’s book, “Wired for Innovation”
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
Reihan Salam loves e-readers. Lev Grossman doesn’t. See their chat on this at Bloggerheads. TV .... (10:14)
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
I am particularly interested in how these screen technologies relate to class. I wrote an article called "The Cult of Kindle and the Myth of Digital Utopia" that touches on this aspect, and I'm working on another now about the transformation of libraries into, essentially, internet cafes. Scary
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
I do agree with you that screen reading encourages scanning, and that print reading encourages attentiveness and contemplation. I'm sure the research will bear this out over the next few years, although I fear no one will care. We seem to be in way too deep already. cafes. Scary
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
I looked up at him with an incredulous look and replied, “This isn’t a computer, it’s an e-book reader.”
He then told me that the “device” in my hand had a screen and required batteries, so it was obviously “some variation of a computer.” The coffee shop, I was told, did not allow the use of computers.
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
i pulled out my Amazon Kindle.
I barely made it a sentence into the e-book I was reading before an employee of the coffee shop came by, stood over me and said, “Excuse me sir, but we don’t allow computers in the coffee shop.”
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
''No E-Books Allowed in This Establishment'' a must read by
By NICKY BILTON in the NY Times today! This is insane!
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
I'd compare screening vs reading to a futon (which I've used for 15 years) vs one of the those luxury ultradeep, six-figure mattresses. For somebody used to a typical mattress, the "luxury" models in stores can seem blissful, maybe brain scans would show it, especially after they've been walking around a city for a few hours. But how will each feel after months of use?
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
In the end all the neurological correlates of reading and listening really won't tell us much about how desirable or not screens are -- and it will remain valid only as long as display technology doesn't change refresh rates, contrast, etc. The point about industrial research is right. The mattress industry really doesn't want scientific studies on mattress technology and sleep because nobody knows what they're going to find -- that's the point of science.
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
well, i doubt my ph.d. will make any difference! what about contacting the comapanies that make the readers? they're the ones who could benefit if the results are good and once the money is there, the scientists will follow...
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
"Paper still seems to me the ideal medium for some things, and serious research to address the question would be useful, though it's not easy to see just yet how MRI technology could answer the primary question. You would think that Amazon, Apple, etc would have an interest in developing this research, but maybe they're afraid of the answer!" -- canada PHD
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
Canada PHD says: ''A fascinating question, and one I'm very interested in myself. I've just used an iPad for the first time, having heard that the experience of reading a book on it is very good. It is indeed, but I'm not convinced it is the equal of paper. I think we've been too quick to assume that electronic is better. ''
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
Neuroscientist in Canada: "A fascinating question, and one I'm very interested in myself. I've just used an iPad for the first time, having heard that the experience of reading a book on it is very good. It is indeed, but I'm not convinced it is the equal of paper. I think we've been too quick to assume that electronic is better. Paper still seems to me the ideal medium for some things, and serious research to address the question would be useful, though it's not easy to see just yet how
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
Unfortunately, as your interview stated, the train is off the track, but look at the accidents we have from celkl-phones and texting while driving!
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
This is a very interesting discussion. The results may even be influenced by age. I know I prefer paper. This is true in seeing patients, using a paper or electronic record; I much prefer paper.
My wife and I have been debating whether to get an I-PAD. Your question is important in the decision.
Who knows now what the computers are doing to our brains long term?
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
Brian Eno is very good here: he says "I notice that almost all of us have not thought about the chaos that would ensue if the Net collapsed."
No, Brian, there would be no chaos. We do not need the Internet. It is a mere cosmetic distraction. We did fine with talking, writing and reading. No, if the Net collpased, it would be fine. You are wrong, sir.
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
A top book editor in NYC tells me today: "Very well said. your interview idea on techblog about MRi tests for reading on paper vs reading on screens,.....was an aspect I hadn't of thought
about, ......however it is just as important-....-or perhaps
more--.......than the rest of the self-serving discussions that are
going on.'' - R
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
will-mri's-and Pet scans help-us-determine-if-paper-reading-is-better-than-electronic-reading? good interview on all this at tech blorg
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
''What piece of electronic gear — even the iPad — will ever feel the same as opening a fresh new book? The iPad is a space already filled with demands, tentacles pulling you away to other people's ideas and commercial intentions for you, whereas a blank book is your own, private, infinite imaginal space.'' - HM said that in Scotland today
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
Dan:
This is pointless. You are wasting your time. Paper is already dead. We're watching a long, drawn-out funeral. All that remains is to make screens as good as possible.
Bill H.
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
In connection with its series on technology and the brain, The NY Times set up a video project asking readers to see what happens when they give up technology. They were looking for volunteers to unplug temporarily and tell us about their experience. They asked me. I said yes. They censored me and refused to air my video on their site. Technofascists? Maybe.
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
"In connection with its series on technology and the brain, The Times is asking readers to see what happens when they give up technology. plugged back in, record a short video telling us what the experience was like. We’ll post the videos ones on NYTimes.com, except for Danny Bloom's video which we refuse to post on our site because it does not toe the party line.''
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
I did a google search on brain scans of reading children and found a lot of literature out there. I have been reviewing it to see if someone has already scanned for differences between reading on paper and reading on screen. . The scans usually use an MRI while people are perfectly still and reading from a screen ahead of them. I
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
from JOSHUA ''JUST FOLLOWING NICK BILTON'S ORDER'' BRUSTEIN:
DEAR Dan on July 28...
The Times video project is tentatively slated to run this Friday. We've decided NOT to include your STUPID ANTI-TECHNOLOGY video, even though we asked for it a month ago, because it does NOT fulfill Technofascist Nick Bilton's primary requirement that we were looking for, which was to reflect on a temporary hiatus from technology. Thank you for NOT participating. Sorry we flipped you.
cheers,
Joshua
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
from JOSHUA JUST FOLLOWING NICK BILTON'S ORDER BRUSTEIN: DEAR Dan on July 28...
The Times video project is tentatively slated to run this Friday. We've decided not to include your video, even though we asked for it a month ago, because it does not fulfill Nick Bilton's primary requirement that we were looking for, which was to reflect on a temporary hiatus from technology. Thank you for NOT participating.
cheers,
Joshua
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
Challenge, Unplugged
toDan Bloom
dateWed, Jul 14, 2010 at 2
RE: series SOON? or never? canceled? dan June 7, 2010, 9:00 am Jul 14
soon. I'll let you know.
jb
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
from JOSHUA BRUSTEIn on June 19 -- RE: ''Dan
Thanks for inquiring about Unplugged! It would be great to get someone
in Taiwan involved -- we haven't had any volunteers from over there
yet.
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
SO.....now, after 30 days, after confimring they got my video for their upcoming video series on being unplugged, a personal letter from Joshua Brustein of the TechnoFacist Dept at the NYTimes, they censor my video and tell me they left it on the cutting room floor. Free country, so they can do that. Sure. But why wait until one day before the release to tell me? Thanks Joshua.
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
623
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
seems like we get 5 hits per day......maybe all from me? When is the New York Times going to post the video as they said they would. Sometime left of never?
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
622
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
i am calling ebooks now as FRANKENBOOKS, they want to be real books and like Frankenstein have a heart of gold...CUTE?
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
and nobody comments? PLEASE ....I WANT COMMENTS..... PRO OR CON!
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
617
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
612
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
607
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
604! BRAVO! more to come.....after New York Times Unplugged Series goes up online, if it ever does. They promised me!
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
596 hits now, soon to hit 600. Then what?
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
RE THE BOOKWICH, a new sandwich-theme reading device to compete with vook, nook and O-Pad: "Um, waiter? I'm finding the Dostoyevsky a bit hard to digest. Could you please get me some AA Milne on toast?" GOOGLE image of "bookwich" for sense of humour....
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
"I think this paper vs screen brain chemistry MRI scas thing is a really central issue in our time, but, like having a ridiculous, anti-human fiat money system, it's become such a given that nobody questions it. GO GO GO" - novelist in Scotland
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
A major newspaperman working for a major newspaper in the Western world tells me today: ''Yes, I plan to do a story on the differences in reading on a screen and on paper within the next couple of months. I'll let you know when I start.''
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
HIS SECOND REPLY:
Dear Dan,
I think we are quite busy now with other studies. The funding would be expensive to pull our group from other studies. It would take some ingenuity, but I think these MRI or PET scan kinds of studies are feasible.
Dr X
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
Dear Dan
We are not doing these kinds of MRI or PET scan studies on reading vs screening, and I do not know of others who might be doing them. Sorry not to be of any more help on this. Good luck in your quixotic quest.
Dr X, X University
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
Hmm, too bad MRI's were not around when movable type printing was first developed so we could learn how the human mind responded to this new-fangled form. And what about the change from parchment to paper! or from stone carving to parchment!
Didn't God want us to read things on stone? After all, Moses brought down the Commandments on stone, not on some sheep skin!
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
It's very nice that Mr. Bloom is passionate about this matter. I don't object to research being done.
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
In order to control for any such MRI experiment, you'd need to work with subjects who had spent equal time with page reading and screen reading. Otherwise, the different effects could merely be a result of less experience. I know I've only been screen reading for 20 of my 34 years -- and if you exclude screen reading for word processing only, I've only been screen reading for 16 years.
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
Dan Bloom: Would you care to enumerate "parts of the brain that are superior for processing, retention and analysis"? And would you care to explain why two non-natural, and thus non-evolved, habits like paper reading or screen reading would *not* light up different parts of the brain? The brain is amazing in its ability to separate seemingly like behaviors, perhaps because it reduces the overall gravity of local brain traumas.
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
The 2002 book _The Myth of the Paperless Office_ points out that paper reflects, rather than emits, light, which means the print reader's eyes are not taxed as much as a screen viewer's eyes are. They didn't have MRI studies and such, but I think they were on to something.
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
I've never said that people shouldn't read/write/watch on screens. I've said that we must preserve forms of reading that involve lengthy and linear attention and concentration, and screen activities popular with the young work in the other direction. If a kid spends at least an hour a night reading a book or a print newspaper etc, Facebook and texting and Youtube aren't a problem. The problem arises when screen diversion crowd out everything else.
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
"If a kid spends at least an hour a night reading a book or a print newspaper etc, Facebook and texting and Youtube aren't a problem. The problem arises when screen diversion crowd out everything else."
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
The Electronic Displacement of Print: The Impact on The Paper Industry....
According to author Thad McIlroy in Canada, 2010 will be the year of the e-reader: electronic devices that provide an alternative to books, magazines and newspapers. In his new ebook, he asks: What does this mean for print industry, and what will be the impact on the paper industry? His book explores a range of scenarios for the electronic displacement of print to 2020.
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
This rather shameless headline from the Springfield Republican in Massachusetts is not a crash blossom, but interesting nonetheless for the way it went viral so quickly last week: "One-armed man arrested for unarmed robbery"
David Moye at AOL news dishes the dirt.
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
''Thanks again for the info. When I decide to write another piece on the subject, I'll try to be as relevant as possible toward the way we read, as well as the science (or current lack of, as you say) behind it.'' - Uk blogger
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
1. What is unplugged living?
2. How do you manage to live unplugged?
3. How would you define slow reading?
4. Why is screen reading inferior to book reading?
5. How can we live more sustainably?
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
''Hi, Danny, I saw your video and photo. Your facial appearance reminds me of a deep thinking scholar but your headgear represents free-thinking pioneer, not bound by institution - free of bigotry. (Am I reading you too much?) I hope you
forgive me my Burei (rudeness).'' - Dan Pak, via South Korea and USA
Dan C.
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
Dr Small, are you or anyone else in the world doing MRI brain scan studies on people reading on paper surfaces vs people reading on screens, ie, readers vs screeners, and do you feel the results will show that paper reading lights up different and superior parts of the brain for processing of info, retention of info and analysis of info, compared to screen-reading, aka "screening"? Contact me at for my research on this, no one else is looking into this. Can you?
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
If the upheaval in the music industry over the last decade is any guide, the closing of more bookstores and a decreasing demand for physical books will force authors and their publishers to find new ways to profit from their work.
"There is not a single aspect of book publishing that digital won't touch," said Carolyn Kroll Reidy, chief executive of Simon & Schuster. "It is transformational."
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
More than 550 years after Johannes Gutenberg printed 180 copies of the Bible on paper and vellum, new technologies as revolutionary as the printing press are changing the concept of a book and what it means to be literate. Sound, animation and the ability to connect to the Internet have created the notion of a living book that can establish an entirely new kind of relationship with readers.
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
Electronic reading devices are transforming the concept of a book, heads the LA Times today. ....
Digital tools advance beyond screens that talk and play videos, connecting readers to authors and online fan communities.
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
The risk is that we become mindless ants following endless crumbs of digital data. "People tend to ask whether this is good or bad," he said. "My response is that the tech train is out of the station, and it's impossible to stop." - Gary Small, at UCLA
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
Dr. Gary Small said Internet use activated more parts of the brain than reading a book did.
On the other hand, online readers often demonstrate what Small calls "continuous partial attention" as they click from one link to the next. The risk is that we become mindless ants following endless crumbs of digital data. "People tend to ask whether this is good or bad," he said. "My response is that the tech train is out of the station, and it's impossible to stop."
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
"Reading well is like playing the piano or the violin," said the poet and critic Dana Gioia, former chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts. "It is a high-level cognitive ability that requires long-term practice. I worry that those mechanisms in our culture that used to take a child and have him or her learn more words and more complex syntax are breaking down."
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
Whereas printed texts often are linear paths paved by the author chapter by chapter, digital books encourage readers to click here or tap there, launching them on side journeys before they even reach the bottom of a page. Some scholars fear that this is breeding a generation of readers who won't have the attention span to get through "The Catcher in the Rye," let alone "Moby-Dick."
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
The risk is that we become mindless ants following endless crumbs of digital data. "People tend to ask whether this is good or bad," he said. "My response is that the tech train is out of the station, and it's impossible to stop."
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
Dan, There is a growing body of research comparing other differences. See the Nielsen research cited in the Guardian article. Neilsen's study is entitled, "How Users Read on the Web". The opening two words are, "They don't", and he goes on to show the differences. I discuss his study and others in Slow Reading. A broad picture is achieved by collating these different kinds of results. Hope that helps, --John
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
Hi Dan, I've never interpreted an MRI scan but I would guess that slow reading vs. "screening" might show a similar pattern to that of introverts vs. extroverts, with introverts having increased blood flow in the frontal lobes and the anterior thalamus, greater engagement of long-term memory, and greater use of the neurotransmitter, acetycholine.
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
Patrick Kingsley, writing in the Guardian, has a very important piece today about slow reading.
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
''Bloom, Your "hunch" suggests that the brain is less individual than it is.
It is worth testing if the cost can be kept down to see how (compromised) individuals each do in each of the modes, screen and print-on-papter.
Sometime down the line, we will also begin to know if light backed reading has any deleterious effects on vision.It is not very likely that every brain will register "supriority" of one format or the other. ''
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
"Yeah, Danny, I agree that reading off screens is inferior. And you're right, we need more MRI scan tests on this. There is actually almost no science out there comparing comfort, cognition, etc. related to reading on paper, versus, various types of e-paper, versus various types of LCD. .....My hope is that, with enough technological progress, reading off a screen won't always be inferior. " -- NYC tech researcher
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
Dr Sacks, ......I have been researching this HUNCH for 3 years, and am in touch with pioneering PHDS like
Anne Mangen in Norway and Maryanne Wolf at Tufts and Gary Small at UCLA...... and do you think these MRI scan tests will happen soon?
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
Dear Dr Oliver Sacks,......
Question: Will future MRI scan tests and research on testees reading words on paper surfaces, compared to people reading
the same texts on screens, inside the MRI unit, show that reading on paper lights up different regions of the brain compared to
reading off screens.....and will these regions be seen to be SUPERIOR for
1. retention of info
2. processing of info
3. analysis of info
4. critical thinking about the info
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
The answer to the reading vs screening question involves a lot of your favorite characters and ideas, including Darwin and Wallace, Borges and Japanese poetry, the colorblind painter, hyperlexia, musical alexia, the evolution of alphabets, and, of course, amazingly adaptable brains.
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
The center in our brain for understanding and producing language is uniquely human, having evolved some hundreds of thousands of years ago. But how is it that reading, a cultural invention only a few thousand years old, also has a dedicated center in the brain? If evolution didn’t put it there, what did?
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
"E-paper looks like low quality newsprint -- such as the kind used to print comic books in Japan, or blurry, cheap, old fashioned U.S. newspapers. These differences may cause problems with information processing. However, when e-paper catches up to paper (or surpasses it) I expect such differences will go away.'' - JED
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
''Bear in mind also that the e-book readers are rapidly improving. There are still readily apparent differences between e-paper and real paper, especially in resolution, contrast and size.
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
''There have been cases in which I could not recall whether a book I read was on the Kindle or on paper, so at least in my case the experience of reading is very similar with both technologies. If there are differences they are probably minor.
I saw next generation e-paper in Japan used in a hotel announcement board that I thought at first was paper, so there is no question that the technology is improving.'' -- Jed
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
Hi Dan -- I think I've said all I want to in that blog post about Hamlet's BlackBerry. Will reading on screens be our undoing? Depends on what you mean by "undoing," but I think that's unlikely, given all the other bad stuff in the world.
But I am taking my own measures to spend less time on the Internet and more time reading carefully and completely. I'm not fearful of screens. .....
DAN ZAK, WASH POST reporter
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
''Dan, You look good in this video, though, which I hope indicates you've bounced back fine........Maybe you've got a good point about unplugging. This is certainly one of those weeks in which I wish I didn't have access." -- M.
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
Seems like the Internet counterculture is already here, and it IS books. -- Craig
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
Craig: "The Internet is like a cocktail party with a ninety second egg timer. Books are like a love affair or a friendship.
....The Internet is like a rambling stream of consciousness, while books are the careful cultivation of thought."
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
"Danny, I watched your video and you make some really good points. It is really difficult to disconnect from the Internet, particularly since my typewriter is my television is my encyclopedia, and is sort of becoming my memory too. Scary! Anyway, your plan for limiting use is an interesting one. Definitely food for thought." -- Craig in SF
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
Publishing is the new literacy?
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
Here comes everybody?
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
Roger L. Kay, one of the most prominent analysts of the PC industry,
described the new generation of machines as “Franken-products,” a
reference to the monster cobbled together from various parts.
...
All these Franken-products can’t possibly exist, but they do, like a
menagerie of imaginary animals,” Mr. Kay, the head of Endpoint
Technologies Associates, wrote in a research note about Computex.
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
ASHLEE VANCE NYTimes headline: June 7, 2009
'Franken-Products' Abound at Taiwan Computer Show
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
Rothamn wrote in 2009: "They’re called “Franken-products” in a New York Times piece, though I like the term “Franken-machines.”
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
FRANKENBOOKS?
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
The Singularity Is Near, a 2005 non-fiction book by Ray Kurzweil
Tomorrow: Digistein
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
Digistein - the monster unleashed when digital technology and ''screening'' off screens runs amok! Francis Bacon, 1624, "THE NEW ATLANTIS"....
Mary Shelley, 1818, "Frankenstein"....
Now: "The Singularity" - Ray Kurzweil, Sergey Brin, Larry Page....
Technological singularity, a theoretical point in the development of a technological civilization
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
''RE: Digistein mem: Frankenstein only wanted to be loved. Same for the singularity crowd, I suspect. ''
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
Jed asks: "Have you actually used an e-book reader? I mean extensively, for many hours. I find no difference between e-book readers and paper, except that the readers have poor contrast like old books, and they are more convenient."
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
Tasnim Shamma on Hamlet's BlackBerry: "Bottom Line: This book convinced me to write all of this by hand (!) before typing it."
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
Hamlet’s BlackBerry: A Practical Philosophy for Building a Good Life in the Digital Age
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
LA Times launches new iPhone app
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
Kindle DX upgrade includes easier-to-read screen
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
Elizabeth Isele in Maine told me: "Your comment is posted on the blog, and I would be happy to review your notes on screen vs page for seniors' eyes. I cannot guarantee I will post a comment about your work, but, if it's a good fit, I'd be happy to. Thank you for reaching out to connect with me. "
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
MRI scans will tell the tale.....
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
Oliver Sacks, M.D. might have some good information about upcoming studies on screen-reading.....but most of these studies are highly 'controlled' and confidential, but we can all gently probe, no?
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
This video, of 'screening' vs. reading is novel, catchy, and also an important concept, esp considering that the process of 'screening' or screen-reading has yet to be investigated in any serious scientific way, to my knowledge. It would be good to get in touch w/ reading specialist Oliver Sacks, M.D. and and he is accessible to scholars & earnest others.
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
This video touches on 'screen-reading', a subject to which
many reading and education specialists may wish to know about. I'd like to get word around
about this, and get colleagues digging into the benefits and esp the hazards
of the universal new addiction: the computer, with its unavoidable mandate of
screen- reading. GUESS WHO SAID THAT?
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
''Video would be stronger with better visuals than the lyrics (some newspaper headlines, front pages, personalities, etc.). ''' -- SB says
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
"I found your video shortly after reading the article below, "Judging but
not judgmental". I know that my generation horrified our elders. I think the
current crop of kids will be deaf from listening to loud music all day, and
with sore hands from stabbing at their phones all day.
However, it is their life to enjoy or waste, and there is little I can do to
convince them that I know any better." - JP, Harvard U.
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
''I also prefer to read on paper than on screen, but my duties (helping
technical students write proposals and thesis) would involve printing yards of
dreck. Rather than attempt that, I read their drafts on screen. Further, my teaching is all about computer science, and often about new
areas - I would rather learn something new than teach something I know well.
So I am chained to my computer for the near future."
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
"Internet viewing is mostly a scanning experience, rather than being enveloped," Getty Museum associate photography curator Brett]Abbott says. "A lot of these projects are so dependent on nuance and context, I don't know how this will translate to the Internet. I don't know if it can be translated without new strategies."
****That's what some people are saying about ***text, too.
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
It is interesting that for every negative story about techno-gadgets in general and e-readers in particular, the industry uses its not inconsiderable power over news agencies to send out damage control stories that would put BP to shame. I predict that this column today about screening on screens compared to reading on paper will be followed by just such stories by industry spin control "experts".
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
While, in many ways screens and e-readers have brought tremendous convenience to our lives they are not without negative side affects that health professionals and clinicians have been reporting and discussing for some time now.
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
Maureen Dowd and the Times in general is getting closer to discussing "reading" vs "screening" in terms of paper reading and screen-reading on Kindles and iPhones. It is important to point out the uncomfortable reality of our techno-gadget addiction. As others most astutely point out in her column today about reading versus screening, we will be hearing about this more and more in the future.spin control "experts".
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
S. Post notes: "As I am getting older, my vision is getting worse. I was really
alarmed when I found myself struggling with small type-size used in
many print books. Screening changed everything for me.
Who knows, maybe we’ll have more trees in parks instead of in books
when ''screening'' becomes mainstream."
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
S.Post adds: "We know that these days watching television is generally much more
popular activity than reading. E-readers and screening, however, are
slowly bringing reading back. If that continues, the benefit of
screening will be significant."
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
S.Post says: "Bloom's reading on paper is better than “screening” sentiment reminds me of
“LP is better than CD” from yesteryear. It might even be possible that
after Gutenberg came up with his little invention there were people
claiming that reading handmade transcriptions done by monks was
superior to reading printed pages."
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
Greg Schofield adds: "Re: scrolling. There are a number of difficulties with moving print and some benefits as well. But the biggest problem and one that effects comprehension directly is finding the end of the last line when a scrolled page moves forward in jump. If this is what “screening” is about — Bloom is spot on — with or without MRI scans."
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
Greg Schofield says: "The difference between paper and static e-ink is nil, both appear on non-moving pages, and the resolution difference for most print can be discounted.
But, scrolling is a different thing altogether and there Bloom has a point."
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
MAD MAGAZINE new issue has a cute animation about a parrot in a bird cage "dumping on an iPad.....: -- let the jokes begin! But seriously, both books and
screens are useful, we need balance, not brouhaha....
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
Scott Simon, NPR host, on FB: "I said that I love my iPad. Our 7 yr old wants to know if this means that I want to marry it."
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
Scott Simon, NPR radio on FB: "Already bought a dozen iBooks. Funny how easy they make it. Wife says, "As long as you don't add anything to your closet."
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
''People read into a piece what they want to read -- rather than what you actually say, even if on balance you are on their side. '' -- ET
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
Jared tells me: "Danny, Send me everything youve got, I'll see how I can use it. I may not get to it as soon as I would like since I'm working on building digital products for the my firm, but I'll let you now if and when I do."
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
JK tells me: "Good to know. I primarily work with social media, but I'd be interested in posting on your work. And i've got a post in the works (in a few weeks) about reading on paper vs digital. I'll be sure to contact you about it."
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
''Dear Darren Garrison, aka ardeegee: Please edit your post to remove the personal attacks and avoid them in future.
Thank you.[The Moderation Team]''
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
Harry T. then told Darren Garrison to cool his heels and delete his post which he did. Harry T said to Darren: "Regardless of your personal feelings towards a person, posts like this are completely inappropriate here, as clearly specified in our guidelines. If you are unable to remain polite, it is better to refrain from posting anything."
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
''Another damn lie by you, you two-faced, wishy-washy trolling sock-puppet scumbag. You have never, ever, ever, ever ONCE e-mailed me or posted a PM to me. You simply can not "open your mouth" without telling a lie-- and that is why I think you are a pathetic excuse for a human being.'' -- Darren Garrison, aka ardeegee
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
I hope one day Eric Goldstein can post about reading on paper versus reading on screens and maybe even post my YouTube video soon to be on the New York Times, about reading vs screening. I call screen-reading as screening, as a new word, because it is not reading per se. But screening is useful too. Don't get me wrong.
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
Unplugged: Take the Challenge: By THE NEW YORK TIMES: Imagine life without your cellphone, your online social networks or e-mail. In connection with its series on technology and the brain, The Times is starting a video project asking readers to see what happens when they give up technology. We’re looking for volunteers to unplug temporarily and tell us about their experience. We’ll post the best ones on NYTimes.com.
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
Ｅｌｌｉｏｔ Ｔｉｂｅｒ, ''TAKING WOODSTOCK'' author: ''terrific video. funny''
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
Wordcrasher adds: "My opinion differs from yours in that I only think that it's always the same action of reading: calling it something else is, in my opinion of course, stretching it too far. " [ie, no need to call it "screening"]...
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
Wordcrasher notes: "Dan, I don't think you are entirely wrong. I think different media can modify our way of reading in many ways. As i said in another place, reading on a PC or an iPad is not comfortable for me, as I get distracted by having movies, music, and all that the web offers just one keystroke from me.
On the other side, my PRS-600's online dictionary has improved my pleasure in reading books in English. "
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
Wordcrasher : "My wife and I reads the same book some weeks ago. She read her paper copy and I read it on my PRS-600. We exchanged our impressions about the book and I never thought for a moment we had a different experience. Different opinions for sure, but I think we both READ the book."
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
Spire: "I know in my case, how I read depends on what I'm reading, not the medium I'm using. If I'm reading a news article, a forum post, blog, etc., I'm usually just skimming to pick up the main points. If, however, I'm researching a subject or reading a novel, then the reading material has my undivided attention, whether I'm reading a physical book, on my Sony/Kindle, or on my laptop screen. But, again, that's just me. "
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
Anthony, PR maven in NYC:...... "I absolutely love your YouTube link -- and I think that you should have your on TV show talking about this stuff (I'd watch every day . . . I suppose you can do that with YouTube, actually) . . . (and yes, I'm going to post your YouTube link on our Twitter page right now!) . . .''
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
Bless this guy! This is some of the most refreshing commentary I've yet to read about all that's going on with techno gadgets and the new "way" of everything - especially with books and reading and the like. I agree with this guy nine thousand percent . . . and if he had his own TV show, I would watch it all the time (when I'm not reading on paper, that is). Dan Bloom, I salute you! And yes it's a paradox that this message is sent "online" . . .
AEPbfq 1 year ago
"when you call for MRI tests to investigate its difference from reading, isn't that a form of screening, too, privileging an image on an electronic display? The test I would suggest is not telling subjects the real purpose of the experiment, letting some read and comment on a text displayed in a printed book OR on a PC screen OR on a reader (e-ink or TFT), and then let raters also unaware of the real purpose look for differences in what people write after different modes. "
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
ARNIE ADDS: ''I am not so sure that there would be much of a difference, nor do I think that such studies would clearly reveal some major flaw in “screening”. Since Dan is just conjecturing, it is quite possible that “screening” might be revealed to be superior in some ways."
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
ARNIE says: ''In the video, you gives yr opinion that “screening” is (in his words) “vastly inferior” to reading on paper. You suggest that brain scans be done with subjects reading on paper and then reading on electronic devices. I assume from yr tone that yu are confident that experts would agree that the mental experience of reading on paper would be shown to touch the brain in a much healthier way. "
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
"when you call for MRI tests to investigate its difference from reading, isn't that a form of screening, too, privileging an image on an electronic display? The test I would suggest is not telling subjects the real purpose of the experiment, letting some read and comment on a text displayed in a printed book OR on a PC screen OR on a reader (e-ink or TFT), and then let raters also unaware of the real purpose look for differences in what people write after different modes. "
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
"I appreciate the way he spends the first 1:31 carefully explaining what an idiot he is before he actually starts talking about reading v. "screening". " -- HAmRag again
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
RichD says: ''Well that's 2 minutes and 34 seconds of my life that I'll never get back...
I think it's just about the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. ''
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
HamsterRage notes: ''I know that looking at a CRT screen or a tube television is different experience from looking at anything else. That's because of the way that the image is created on the screen with that technology. I have heard of studies that found that they affect the brain to some degree.
I'm not sure that any of that holds for LCD or plasma type displays though. Certainly it can't hold true for e-ink, which doesn't strobe in any way at all. ''
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
DEM adds: "What's hurting intellectualism is the crazy pace of today's society, and the focus on just making money and having fun. People read less, challenge their intellects less etc. than in past as we live in a society focused on entertainment to a greater extent than anytime in the past. And being so hectic, people are more apt to skim rather than carefully read things. It's the change of society, not the change in media/technology that causes that IMO.''
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
DeMaul adds: "Bunch of hogwash. Information is information, doesn't matter if it's being read on a book, printout, computer monitor ..."
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
He adds: ''I've always been a word at a time reader, and that's how I read on every medium.
Text is text is text is text. It's all the same. "''
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
Demaull disagrees: "Sorry, but I read paper books and e-books currently. I get the exact same experience out of both. Do I read less than I would if there wasn't super long work days limiting free time, and TV, movies, sports, internet surfing and other more "fun" hobbies competing for that free time? Sure.
But when I do read, I read exactly the same on paper on a pc or a Kindle. ''
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
Lenna says: "If reading on a screen should be calling 'screening', then reading on paper should be called 'papering' ..."
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
Says Donaggdeon, and maybe she is right: "Dan, Dan... hang it up. There is no "brouhaha" except in your mind."
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
I've been banned now for life as as an alleged troll, and for what MobileRead calls sock-puppetry, all because I spoke out about the differences betweem reading and screening. It's amazing how fanatical the digital fascists/digital marxists are! What are the afraid of? I am not anti-screening. I am merely calling it what it is. Weird!
MrDanbloom 1 year ago
Says an 80 year old gentleman in NYC: "Danny, I could not agree with you more on reading printed matter that is in my hand against reading it on a screen. I find the former a far superior experience to the latter."
MrDanbloom 1 year ago