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Reading: Print vs Online

Which is better for our brains?

Brain Changes

How Reading Makes Us Moral

* "Spiritual Reading" v. "Carnal Reading"

  • Decoding words & finding the deeper meaning.
  • "...that unleashes the power that good literature has to reach into our souls and, in so doing, draw and connect us to others."

  • Reduce Information
  • Frank Kermode - "Carnal Reading -- characterized by the hurried, utilitarian, information processing that constitutes the bulk or our daily reading diet"

* Readers Have More Empathy

  • Pixel confusion
  • New brain pathways
  • Different perspectives
  • Better empathize with characters
  • "...who often read fiction appear to be better able to understand other people, empathize with them and view the world from their perspective. It's the kind of thing writer Joyce Carol Oates is talking about when she says, 'Reading is the sole means by which we slip, involuntarily, often helplessly, into another's skin, another's voice, another's soul."

* Reader's won't just "Talk to you...They'll speak to you"

  • deep thoughts/ profound theories for arguments
  • knowledge of words and ideas
  • Verbose
  • Difficulty seeing a paragraph in context to the text as a whole

  • Google Map analogy

The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains

Nicholas Carr

  • Mentions David Sarnoff's (who pioneered radio at RCA & television at NBC) comment in 1955, "We are too prone to make technological instruments the scapegoats for the sins of those who wield them...it is the way they are used that determines their value."

Which is better for our brains?

  • Argues when people begin to debate the medium that is being discussed, it is the content that they are actually discussing. Then goes on to say that the content matters less than the medium.

"Let's Remember Print"

Marshall McLuhan- Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man

  • Popular mediums have changed society negatively.
  • Bruce Friedman, a pathologist at University of Michigan Medical School comments on how the internet has caused him to have "totally lost the ability to read & absorb a long article."
  • Reading online is used for "efficient" reading, causing the idea of "deep reading" to be lost.
  • People now see reading (online) as a medium to get information quickly and memorize for as long as they need. We no longer learn from deep reading.
  • In "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" Carr brings up the main point, "As we come to rely on computers to meditate our understanding of the world, it is our own intelligence that flattens into artificial intelligence."

"What feels like cyberutopia may sometimes be a virtual mirage."

"Even though students can now do research projects using nothing but online resources, they ought not."

"Quality information is often best conveyed in the old technology- the book.

Reading in print is better for our brains because....

What Digital Reading Lacks

Taken from " Beyond Print: Reading Digital" and "The Reading Brain in the Digital Age: The Science of Paper versus Screens"

-Information overload & confusion (the presence of numerous links can lad to cognitive overload and make the reader feel frustrated

-Problems associated with reading from a screen: Screen resolution, eye strain and screen glare

"Navigation Issue"

  • "They [readers] recall the location of headings, photographs or significant text...and can move back and forth with ease... With an e-book or e-text on a screen all these navigational aids are gone."

Paperback books have "defined domains"

  • A reader can focus on a single page of a paper book without losing sight of the whole text: one can see where the book begins and ends and where one page is in relation to those borders."

Meta-cognitive Learning Regulation

  • When reading on screens, people are less likely to engage in setting goals, rereading and making sure they are understanding the text

  • Technion–Israel Institute of Technology study

"Britain's National Literacy Trust released the results of a study of 34,910 young people aged 8 to 16. Researchers reported that 39% of children & teens read daily using electronic devices, but only 28% read print every day. Those who read only onscreen were three times less likely to say that they enjoy reading, and a third less likely to have a favorite book."

Works Cited

Facts about reading online

Wolf, Maryanne. "Nieman Reports | Our 'Deep Reading' Brain: Its Digital Evolution Poses Questions." Nieman Reports. The Neiman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard, n.d. Web. 09 Sept. 2014.

Prior, Karen Swallow. "How Reading Makes Us More Human." The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company, 21 June 2013. Web. 07 Sept. 2014.

Martin, Lauren. "Why Readers, Scientifically, Are The Best People To Fall In Love With." Elite Daily. Elite Daily, 09 July 2014. Web. 07 Sept. 2014.

Carr, Nicholas. “The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains.” New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. Online. 08 Sept. 2014. http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=1KayoVl3OTMC&oi=fnd&pg =PA1&dq=brains+reading+print+online&ots=3G14CQQl- M&sig=0mb0jm5U0xW0CHOTCeF8HA3ecCc#v=onepage&q=brains%20readi ng%20print%20online&f=false

Valenza, Joyce Kasman. "Let's Remember Print." Book Report 16.5 (1998): 21-23. ERIC. Web. 9 Sept. 2014.

Uso-Juan, Esther, and Ma. Noelia Ruiz-Madrid. "Reading Printed Versus Online Texts. A Study Of EFL Learners' Strategic Reading Behavior." International Journal Of English Studies 9.2 (2009): 59-79. ERIC. Web. 9 Sept. 2014.

Jabr, Ferris. "The Reading Brain in the Digital Age: The Science of Paper versus Screens." Scientific American Global RSS. Scientific American, 11 Apr. 2013. Web. 08 Sept. 2014

Gary J. Brown, (2001),"Beyond print: reading digitally", Library Hi Tech, Vol. 19 Iss 4 pp. 390 – 399. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/07378830110412456

Dehaene, Stanislas. “Reading in the Brain: The New Science of How We Read” New York: Penguin Group. Online. 08 Sept. 2014. http://books.google.com/books?id=NlYsTqta7SYC&printsec=frontcover&so urce=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false

Hayles, N. Katherine. "How We Read: Close, Hyper, Machine." How We Think: Digital Media and Contemporary Technogenesis. 55-79. n.p.: Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 2012. EconLit. Web. 7 Sept. 2014.

People who read online and in print daily are more likely to be above average readers.

Reading is not etched in our genes the way speech is - we teach our minds to translate characters.

The media & other technologies we use pay an important role in shaping the neural circuits inside of our brains.

Facts about reading in print

When we read online, our brains tend to "decode" information rather than retain it.

Deep readers retain more information reading.

For elderly people, books printed with large text makes it easier to read.

Flexibility in going between different information (hyperlinks), efficiency in getting the gist & moving through different texts.

It is more efficient to take notes & highlight in printed books rather than on electronic devices.

Reading in print is less distracting than reading online due to no hyperlinks or advertisements.

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