Screading
Kevin Kelly has an interesting piece on what screens do for reading in Smithsonian. I especially liked his thought here:
Books were good at developing a contemplative mind. Screens encourage more utilitarian thinking. A new idea or unfamiliar fact will provoke a reflex to do something: to research the term, to query your screen “friends” for their opinions, to find alternative views, to create a bookmark, to interact with or tweet the thing rather than simply contemplate it. Book reading strengthened our analytical skills, encouraging us to pursue an observation all the way down to the footnote. Screen reading encourages rapid pattern-making, associating this idea with another, equipping us to deal with the thousands of new thoughts expressed every day. The screen rewards, and nurtures, thinking in real time. We review a movie while we watch it, we come up with an obscure fact in the middle of an argument, we read the owner’s manual of a gadget we spy in a store before we purchase it rather than after we get home and discover that it can’t do what we need it to do.
To me, the most powerful thing about blogging is having this constant outlet that leads to critical reading of almost everything. What’s interesting is that while Kelly is right that new ideas do promote a reflex (just like his article has done for me right this second), the act of creating the content on top of it is actually where the contemplating happens for me. In trying to turn something I found interesting into a post I’m forced to contemplate what and why it matters.
[PS - Sorry for the bad title ... I couldn't help myself.]
Hi, I'm 
I love screading.
I remember one of your elementary school science fair projects was on whether comprehension, or some other variable, was affected if the person read something on a screen or on a page.
It’s come to the point where I feel like I can only concentrate on a paper page if there aren’t other things around to distract me. Like the glowing boxes that accompany me everywhere I go.
I really like this excerpt, thank you for posting it. I have always been a lover of books. A work of fiction or non-fiction that I can throw in my bag, read on the train, highlight, and dogear. But I must say that I have come to love the fluidity of the internet. I love the ability to quickly share something interesting that I read with hundreds of people in a single moment. I don’t need to back up my reasons or wait for a pause at a dinner to say “I was reading the most interesting article today which said…” And even if I was able to capture the table’s attention it’s not as if I would have printed photocopies to distribute to everyone with my favourite passage marked.
All this to say, the internet makes the world feel smaller, and a book makes a person feel small in a big world…. both are nice in their own way.