Why paper books may never goi away:
In the meantime, other research does suggest possible differences. A 2004 study found that students more fully remembered what they’d read on paper. Those results were echoed by an experiment that looked specifically at e-books, and another by psychologist Erik Wästlund at Sweden’s Karlstad University, who found that students learned better when reading from paper.
Wästlund followed up that study with one designed to investigate screen reading dynamics in more detail. He presented students with a variety of on-screen document formats. The most influential factor, he found, was whether they could see pages in their entirety. When they had to scroll, their performance suffered.
[. . .]
Many questions remain. If reading shorter texts on screen or paper is indeed a matter of preference, does the same hold for deep reading? Can interface designers find better workarounds for the physical limitations of screens? Will people eventually adapt, with screen-trained readers finding new ways of creating structures in the absence of tactile cues?
Jager-Adams thinks it’s possible that deep reading, at least for many people, may eventually prove to be intertwined with the physical form of paper books. If that’s true, it’s all the more reason to appreciate them.
I don't seem to have a preference for paper or electronic books depending on the type of reading I'm doing, whether it's "deep" reading or fun casual reading or whatever. It depends on the mood I'm in, I suppose. But I am among those who still take paper books more seriously. A story seems more real, ideas more eternal.
I was saddened by this story:
MUNCIE, Ind. — Ball State University is bringing its student yearbook back in a completely new form following a 17-year absence.
Journalism instructor Brian Hayes says the high cost of publishing yearbooks "makes it nearly impossible" for Ball State to have a traditional one like The Orient, which ceased publication in 1997.
But Hayes says students in an immersive class who worked for a year created the concept of the new yearbook called Cardinal Life that can now be ordered online.
The story isn't quite clear about whether this is an online yearbook or a regular yearbook that can be ordered online. If it's the former, too bad, so sad. I still drag out my high school yearbooks from time to time and am instantly transported back to my younger, more innocent days. I don't think calling up the yearbook online would have the same effect.
