The Reading Brain in the Digital Age: Paper versus Screens

The Reading Brain in the Digital Age: The Science of Paper versus Screens: Scientific American.

As studies continue on the difference that digital reading on a screen makes for our reading skills, this article (posted April 11, 2013) helps put things in perspective and offers preliminary insights. As it turns out, reading physical books may be better for us in the long run, though e-reading continues to rise. Read the entire article at the Scientific American link above. Here is part of it to show you what studies are showing.

Nevertheless, the video brings into focus an important question: How exactly does the technology we use to read change the way we read? How reading on screens differs from reading on paper is relevant not just to the youngest among us, but to just about everyone who reads—to anyone who routinely switches between working long hours in front of a computer at the office and leisurely reading paper magazines and books at home; to people who have embraced e-readers for their convenience and portability, but admit that for some reason they still prefer reading on paper; and to those who have already vowed to forgo tree pulp entirely. As digital texts and technologies become more prevalent, we gain new and more mobile ways of reading—but are we still reading as attentively and thoroughly? How do our brains respond differently to onscreen text than to words on paper? Should we be worried about dividing our attention between pixels and ink or is the validity of such concerns paper-thin?

…Even so, evidence from laboratory experiments, polls and consumer reports indicates that modern screens and e-readers fail to adequately recreate certain tactile experiences of reading on paper that many people miss and, more importantly, prevent people from navigating long texts in an intuitive and satisfying way. In turn, such navigational difficulties may subtly inhibit reading comprehension. Compared with paper, screens may also drain more of our mental resources while we are reading and make it a little harder to remember what we read when we are done. A parallel line of research focuses on people’s attitudes toward different kinds of media. Whether they realize it or not, many people approach computers and tablets with a state of mind less conducive to learning than the one they bring to paper.

“There is physicality in reading,” says developmental psychologist and cognitive scientist Maryanne Wolf of Tufts University, “maybe even more than we want to think about as we lurch into digital reading—as we move forward perhaps with too little reflection. I would like to preserve the absolute best of older forms, but know when to use the new.”

The World Wide Web Became Free 20 Years Ago Today!

The World Wide Web Became Free 20 Years Ago Today | Observations, Scientific American Blog Network.

Not much time to post today, but can’t pass up this notice from Scientific American. Happy birthday WWW! Think of how far this technology has developed in those 20 years! Astounding! The WWW is an integral part of our lives now, including libraries. Ponder for a moment all the free information – and now free ebooks, emags, etc! – available to us via the Web! Obviously it has been a powerful tool for good in our lives; but it has also been a powerful tool for evil. May God give us wisdom to discern the difference and to use it wisely, for our good and for His glory.

Read the rest of this news item at the link above, along with some interesting links that tell the rest of the story.

You and I can access billions of Web pages, post blogs, write code for our own killer apps—in short, do anything we want on the Web—all for free! And we’ve enjoyed free reign because 20 years ago, today, Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee and his employer, the CERN physics lab in Geneva, published a statement that made the nascent “World Wide Web” technology available to every person, company and institution with no royalty or restriction.

Berners-Lee proposed the Web in 1989 and had a working version in Dec 1990. But by 1993 certain user groups were positioning themselves to try to monopolize the Web as a commercial product. Chief among them was the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois, which had developed a browser called Mosaic that would later become Netscape. So Berners-Lee and CERN decided to release the code for the Web, believing that software development by hundreds of Web enthusiasts at the time, and millions of people in the future, would always stay one step ahead of any company that tried to control the Web or force people to pay to use it. The decision came at a very tense time that could have ruined the Web’s primary goal as a ubiquitous, open communications platform.

“Honoring Christ Online”: An Interview with Tim Challies

Honoring Christ Online: An Interview with Tim Challies by Tim Challies | Reformed Theology Articles at Ligonier.org.

This month’s Tabletalk includes an interview with Christian blogger and pastor Tim Challies (challies.com – “Informing the Reforming”). This was one of the first blogs I found and started following. And still do, because it is one of the best Christian blogs on the internet. And Challies covers a lot of books, which is one of the things that initially drew me in

This interview contains many interesting items, but of special interest to our readers will be Challies’ description of the value of blogging and other forms of social media by today’s Christian:

TT: How do blogs benefit the church?

TC:The church rightly has a love-hate relationship with blogs and the blogosphere. Unfortunately, though not surprisingly, blogs have been both a great benefit and a great liability to the church. When blogs are at their best, they are a source of biblical exposition, a means of spiritual encouragement, and a source of valuable news and information. On a personal level, bloggers are able to model Christian living and display thoughtful engagement with ideas and competing worldviews. The blogs I appreciate most are those that remain steady, focused, and biblical over the long run.

TT: In an age of rapid social media growth, how should Christians be encouraged or discouraged to use social media?

TC:Social media is a fact of life in the twenty-first century. Many Christians (and non-Christians, for that matter) would make it all go away if they could. However, since that is not going to happen, Christians are being forced to adapt to this new world, and they are being forced to learn to use social media in a way that honors God. Social media itself is not for everyone, and certainly every form of social media is not for everyone.

Christian leaders are finding that if they are to have a voice to the current generation, they need to have a voice that includes at least some forms of social media. As Albert Mohler states in his book The Conviction to Lead, a refusal to take advantage of at least some forms of social media is essentially a refusal to engage an entire generation.

Of course, one of the questions that caught my eye was the one relating to the books that have influenced Challies most:

TT: Excluding the bible, what have been the five most influential books in your life and why?

TC: Though I was raised in the Reformed tradition, I drifted into the Evangelical mainstream shortly after I got married and left my parents’ home. There were several books that were instrumental in showing me that sound doctrine really does matter and that served to rekindle my love for Reformed theology. John MacArthur’s Ashamed of the Gospelexposed the church I was attending as being driven by pragmatism rather than Scripture; James Montgomery Boice’s Whatever Happened to the Gospel of Grace? showed me the beauty of sound doctrine while R.C.Sproul’s The Holiness of Godopened my eyes to the sheer wonder and majesty of God. Those three books played a pivotal role in my life; they were just the books I needed within a very particular circumstance, and I regard it as the Lord’s kindness that He exposed me to all three of them.

Since then, John Owen’s Overcoming Sin and Temptationis one I have returned to often as I’ve done battle with sin, while Jerry Bridges’ The Discipline of Gracehas taught me the value of preaching the gospel to myself and ensuring that the gospel is instrumental, not supplemental, to all of faith and practice.

You will find the rest of the interview at the Ligonier link above. And if you haven’t visited challies.com, it’s time you did.

Tim Challies is author of the blog Challies.com and lives near Toronto, Canada. He is also author of The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment and The Next Story. You can follow him on Twitter @challies.

Gadgets Versus Books | ShelfTalker

Gadgets Versus Books | ShelfTalker.

The scene this woman describes while sitting at an airport is all too familiar these days, and one that bothers me immensely also. Gadgets have taken over people’s lives, including (maybe especially!) children’s. Yes, where are the books? I realize that people are doing more and more ereading on such devices (I do too!), but most of the activity on our gadgets is for entertainment, not education and enlightenment. Which is why I appreciated this gal’s “rebel” book reading.

And her thoughts prompt some questions for us: How are you (and am I) using  your gadgets these days? Are you limiting the time your child uses them for entertainment? Are you still reading? Are you teaching your children to read? How about a trip to the local library each week?! Some things to think about.

This article appeared on the “ShelfTalker” blog (Publisher’s World) and was posted March 29, 2013. You may read the entire brief post at the link above, but here is the gist of it:

Everywhere I looked people had their heads in their phones, their iPads and their computers, but no one had a book. Not even the littlest reader had a book. This little four-year-old had a learning device that he deftly used to keep himself amused while waiting to board his flight. Parents of toddlers had the kids huddled up close to look at the small screen while they read out loud. This was disturbing to me. Where were the books?

…I happily, almost defiantly, read my book during take-off and landing just to irritate all the people who had power down their devices. I didn’t have to leave my book just because the plane was moving and was happy for this. But as a bookstore owner I was shocked at the dearth of books. The airport bookstores, if you can call them that, since they were sadly lacking books, had clearly switched to catering to the traveling e-readers.

I clung to my book during the flight and all during my trip. I sat on the beach and overheard people complain about how hard it was to read in the sun or lament that they had just run out of power. I gleefully turned real pages and read to my heart’s content. I know the times are changing, but I would rather tote around a heavier bag than read on a screen while at the beach.

And, if you drop a book in the pool, as I did, it gets soggy, but isn’t ruined. The same can’t be said for an e-reader.

The Death of the Bookstore

The Death of the Bookstore.

I found this brief post by Ben Witherington (March5, 2013) on the Patheos website to be sad but true. I cannot see the complete end of bookstores, but with so many of the small “Indie” (independent) ones closing shop, there are definitely quite a few deaths out there. But you can help keep them alive! By visiting them, encouraging the owner, and buying from them. Locally we still have some great options, including the Reformed Book Outlet in Hudsonville. When was the last time you stopped in to browse and buy there, or at Baker Book House’s newly renovated store (28th and East Paris in Grand Rapids), or at Credo Books (Gary Vander Schaaf’s store located in downtown Grand Rapids in Victoria’s Antiques, 449 Century)? Isn’t it time you did?

If we are to ask what is it that is killing off bookstores, the answer is obvious and clear as the shine on your computer screen. Computers and the Internet, and the sheer convenience of shopping at home by computer have been steadily killing off bookstores. Not only so, but last year, for the first time, Amazon announced that it had more digital book sales than hard copy sales. The times they are a changing, and not entirely for the better. Why not?

In the first place bookstores, like record stores, were places where you could go and actually examine the goods at length, ask advice from a knowledgable bibliophile about what was good to read, say in the category of mystery novels. Have a cup of coffee and sample a few actual books. Perhaps buy a used one. And all manner of things would be well for the book lover.

Disembodied books have the same problems as disembodied education in general. It doesn’t involve ethos, or real contact with actual other human beings in person. It doesn’t involve incarnational presence. It doesn’t involve a social dimension, say consulting your favorite owner of a book shop and building a friendship over the years. In short, it is a more gnostic approach to reading, learning, knowledge.

“Landscape House” made from 3D printer – world’s first full-size building!

3D printer to carve out world’s first full-size building | Cutting Edge – CNET News.

Quite some time ago I did a post on the wonders of 3D printers, and since then the idea has exploded and the technology has expanded. Just last week came word that an architect had designed and is planning to contruct a house entirely from materials made with a 3D printer. And, as you will see from the name and note below, he’s Dutch too! This is part 1 of our “Friday Fun” today. Check out the link above and see what this Dutchman is planning to create. It’s amazing!

Sure, we’ve heard of 3D-printed iPhone cases, dinosaur bones, and even a human fetus – but something massive, like a building?

This is exactly what architect Janjaap Ruijssenaars has been working on. The Dutch native is planning to build what he calls a “Landscape House.” This structure is two-stories and is laid out in a figure-eight shape. The idea is that this form can borrow from nature and also seamlessly fit into the outside world.

Ruijssenaars describes it on his Web site as “one surface folded in an endless mobius band,” where “floors transform into ceilings, inside into outside.”

An Android Psalter App & A Great Psalmody Site!

Psalter – Android Apps on Google Play.

For those of you with a love of the Psalms and of the United Presbyterian Psalter (1912) and with an Android device, I want to make you aware of a Psalter app that has been designed by Cornelius Boon, who contacted me yesterday about this great tool. He developed this to help the young people in the CERC (Covenant Evangelical Reformed Church) of Singapore learn the Psalter. I helped my wife load it on to her smartphone last night and it works great! It consists of the Psalter lyrics only (not the music), but is easy to use and very useful. Follow the link to the Google Play store and make use of the free app! And thank you, Cornelius!

Along with this, I would also like to make you aware of a fine psalmody site developed and managed by a young URC (United Reformed Churches) man, Michael Kearney. The site is called URC Psalmody, with the sub-title “Discussing the union of text and music in the singing off God’s Word”. The posts consist of detailed treatments of the lyrics and music of the Psalter Hymnal with a strong emphasis on the psalms, as you will quickly discover. Michael not only discusses the relationship between faithful lyrics and good music, he also provides examples of it through the use of videos and audio files. He has also featured the PR Psalm Choir and singing by the children of the PRC. I encourage you to check out his site, bookmark it, and follow it. Thanks to you too, for your fine work in promoting the psalms, Michael!

And, of course, do not forget our own PRC Psalm Choir YouTube channel developed by Josh Hoekstra, director of the Psalm Choir. Watch beautiful videos while listening to the beautiful music of the choir. Thanks for this wonderful work too, Josh!

Never Mind E-Books: Why Print Books Are Here to Stay – WSJ.com

Never Mind E-Books: Why Print Books Are Here to Stay – WSJ.com.

Ah, this is the type of story that makes my heart smile and sing. Guess what? It appears that the news of the approaching demise of the printed book has been greatly exaggerated, to borrow a line from Mark Twain. The Wall St. Journal posted this encouraging report on Jan.5, 2013, and it does indeed lift the spirits of us bibliophiles. So, no, do NOT burn your books!

And, to add another number to the stats, I am one of those who uses his Kindle as a supplemental and complementary form of reading (similar to any online reading I do); it certainly has not replaced my traditional method: absorbing the words of my printed books Below is the beginning of the WSJ article; read the rest at the link above or here.

Lovers of ink and paper, take heart. Reports of the death of the printed book may be exaggerated.

Enlarge Image

Brain Stauffer

A 2012 survey revealed that just 16% of Americans have actually purchased an e-book.

Ever since Amazon introduced its popular Kindle e-reader five years ago, pundits have assumed that the future of book publishing is digital. Opinions about the speed of the shift from page to screen have varied. But the consensus has been that digitization, having had its way with music and photographs and maps, would in due course have its way with books as well. By 2015, one media maven predicted a few years back, traditional books would be gone.

Half a decade into the e-book revolution, though, the prognosis for traditional books is suddenly looking brighter. Hardcover books are displaying surprising resiliency. The growth in e-book sales is slowing markedly. And purchases of e-readers are actually shrinking, as consumers opt instead for multipurpose tablets. It may be that e-books, rather than replacing printed books, will ultimately serve a role more like that of audio books—a complement to traditional reading, not a substitute.

Library Extension for Chrome – A Cool Tool

Library Extension | Library Extension for Chrome.

This post will be short and sweet. If you are a Google Chrome user (a web browser I have grown to love, though I still use FireFox as well), you will want to look into this handy extension. This past week I learned about this great tool for finding books in your local library that you are searching for on Amazon or other book sites. While you are shopping for books online, the extension is working to find the title in libraries near you – amazing! Even if the library nearest you is not yet available, keep checking as the supporting library list will no doubt continue to grow. Visit the link above and add the “library extension” to your personal Chrome today!

The day Einstein feared is here!

 

Sorry about the mess up – let’s try this!

 

 

Please remind your teens to shut down (their devices), look up (at the world), and truly enjoy their friends and their life. Otherwise they will be just like the people in these pictures. And prove that Einstein’s theory of relational relativity is really quite true.