Who Likes eBooks? Naomi S. Baron - Professor of Linguistics COST FP1104 American University Washington, DC USA
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Who Likes eBooks?
Naomi S. Baron
Professor of Linguistics
American University Washington, DC USA
COST FP1104
4-5 November 2013 Ljubljana, Slovenia
1Point …
“Babies born today will probably never read
anything in print.”
Ben Horowitz
(co-founder of
Andreessen Horowitz Venture Capital)
October 2012
2… Counterpoint
“It’s not a book. It doesn’t have a smell, you
don’t touch it …, you’re plugged into the
internet, you can’t concentrate, it hurts your
eyes, and you lose the beauty of the words
behind the screen. Life itself is in hard copy[.]
Not this treacherous digitalism which has
permeated our lives and our reality.”
American University Undergraduate Student
Fall 2011
3Point …
Q: What is the one thing you like most about
reading onscreen?
A: “The ability to travel and bring multiple books
to read, but not to have to fill up your
suitcase.”
American University Undergraduate Student
Fall 2011
4… Counterpoint
“I wonder if anyone has ever cried reading an
e-book?”
Quoted in The Guardian
2007
5Defining Parameters
n eReading
n Reading any digitally-accessed written text
n eBook
n Book-length text distributed in digital format
n PDF, ePub, HTML format (continuous text)
n Digitally-native eBook
n Today’s discussion
n Continuous digital text accessed on computer,
tablet, eReader, or mobile phone
n NOT digitally-native eBooks
6Rise of eReading
n Physical devices
n Early eReaders
n Sony (Japan: 2003; US: 2004)
n Amazon Kindle: 2007
n iPad: 2010
n > 1 billion smart phones
n Where do we do our eReading?
n Is there an internet connection?
n Size of screen real estate
n Decline in laptop sales, growth in tablet sales
7Today’s Questions
n What do we mean by “reading”?
n What are the affordances of eReading
platforms?
n What are the challenges of digital reading?
n Who benefits from eBooks?
n What do writers and readers say about
reading onscreen?
n How do we reconcile digital and print
reading?
8What Do We Mean by “Reading”?
Continuous or On the Prowl
n Continuous
n Intensive vs. extensive (Bible vs. novel)
n Plow forward vs. contemplation (thriller vs. Joyce)
n On the prowl
n Skimming
n In print: selecting new book, reading magazine
n Onscreen: Jakob Nielsen’s F Pattern (reading web pages)
n Scanning
n In print: search for word referenced in index
n Onscreen:
§ “power browsing” (University College London)
§ “Find” function, “snippet literacy” (Baron)
§ “informacy” (Dan Russell – Google)
9What Do We Mean by “Reading”?
Deep Reading vs. Hyper Reading
n Deep reading
n Maryanne Wolf
n “sophisticated processes that propel comprehension and
that include inferential and deductive reasoning, analogical
skills, critical analysis, reflection, and insight”
n cf. close reading
n Hyper reading
n Katherine Hayles
n “a strategic response to an information-intensive
environment, aiming to conserve attention by quickly
identifying relevant information, so that only relatively few
portions of a given text are actually read”
n cf. hyper attention
10Affordances of eReading Platforms
n Search
n On the web, within a document (“Find”)
n Rapid switch between web pages
n Rapid switch between functions
n On computers: multiple screens available,
enabling onscreen multitasking
n On mobile phones: easily shift between apps
n Access to reference functions (e.g., dictionaries)
n Adjust screen, font size
11Challenges from Digital Screens
n Digital screens invite a different style of
reading than does print
n Power browsing, not continuous reading
n Hyper reading, not deep reading
n Short, not long, texts
n Distraction, multitasking
n One-off reading (not rereading)
n Little annotation, little personalization of text
n Social, not individual, engagement with text
n Writing loses physical attributes
12Who Benefits from eBooks?
The Economics of eBooks: Business
n eBooks are a business, not a public service
n Book Industry Study Group: conference on
“Making Information Pay for Higher Education”
n Amazon
n Sells c. 50% of all books sold in US
n Natural extension from print to eBooks
n New: MatchBook (low price for eBook if
previously purchased print copy from Amazon)
n c. 25% of books sold in the US are eBooks
13The Economics of eBooks: Education
n Background
n Lower education: Great Recession
n Gov. Arnold Schwarznegger: California
n Higher education: high cost of textbooks
n Estimates: average $1200 USD/year
n Indiana University/internet2/Educause initiative
n Text procurement options
n Buy or rent (hardcopy or eBook)
n Subscription system (CourseSmart)
n Open source textbooks (overwhelmingly eBooks)
n Contribution of online learning to eBook use
14Writer Attitudes
n Michael Dirda (Washington Post book critic)
n “E-books resemble motel rooms – bland and
efficient. Books are home – real, physical things
you can love and cherish and make your own, till
death do you part. Or till you run out of shelf
space.”
n Paul Theroux (travel writer)
n [“With eReaders] something certainly is lost – the
physicality of a book, how one makes a book
one’s own by reading it (scribbling in it, dog-
earing pages, spilling coffee on it) and living with it
as an object, sometimes a talisman.”
15Writer Attitudes
(cont.)
n Alain de Botton (philosopher and writer)
n “I found that whatever I read on my Kindle I
couldn’t really remember in the long term. It was
as if I had never read it.”
n Ray Bradbury (science fiction writer)
n “There is no future for e-books because they are
not books”
n "E-books smell like burned fuel".
16Reader Attitudes
Parents of Young Children
n Generally favor print for young children
n “Understanding the Children’s Book Consumer
in the Digital Age” (January 2013)
n 69% of parents preferred print for children age 0-6
n 61% of parents preferred print for children age 7-19
n American Academy of Pediatrics
n Restrict screen time for children under age 2
n Silicon Valley parents: Waldorf School
n “If I worked at Miramax and made good, artsy,
rated R movies, I wouldn’t want my kids to see
them until they were 17”
17Reader Attitudes
Adolescents
n Scholastic (2013)
n 80% prefer print when reading for fun (age 6-17)
n 58% said “will always want to read books
printed on paper even though there are ebooks
available” (age 9-17)
n “Understanding the Children’s Book
Consumer in the Digital Age”
n “Snap back to print”: rise in % of teens
preferring print over eBooks (between Spring
2012 and Fall 2012)
18Reader Attitudes
University Students
n My studies on university student attitudes
towards reading onscreen versus in hardcopy
n Online questionnaires with choice and open-
ended answers (4 Qs: “like most”/ “like least”
about reading onscreen and on hardcopy; other
comments)
n US questionnaires administered in
n Fall 2010, Fall 2011, Spring 2013
n Japanese and German versions of study
n Japanese data now being analyzed
n German data now being collected/analyzed
19Appeal of Words Onscreen
Four Major Variables
n Clear advantages of reading onscreen
n Convenience
n (Democratization of access)*
n Possible advantages of reading onscreen
n Environmentally-friendly?
n Cost?
*Not mentioned by students, but important in larger
discussion of eBooks
20Convenience
n Baron data
n 48% said the one thing they “liked most”
about reading onscreen involved convenience,
e.g.,
n “it’s easy to take with me”
n “it’s a hassle to carry around a lot of books”
n Goodreads: Survey of 1500 members
n 72% read eBooks on mobile phones while
commuting or waiting in line
n 13% said mobile phone was the only digital
device they used for reading
21Democratization of Access
n Creative Commons licenses
n Public Library of Science (PLoS)
n MOOCs
n Digital Public Library of America
n Plus other national digital library projects, e.g.,
Europeana
n Free eReaders and eBooks for children in
Africa, India
22Environmentally-Friendly?
n Common assumption
n Using eBooks helps the environment (no paper)
n Reality: digital devices have serious costs
n Depletion of rare earth minerals, health hazards in
production and recycling, power to run the cloud
n Paper is a renewable resource
n Baron data
n “Like most” about digital devices
n 21% said something about the environment
n BUT: additional comments show conflict
n “I like that digital screens save paper but it is hard
to concentrate when reading on them”
23Cost?
n Price wars over eBooks (what is the just price?)
n 2013 survey (Indiana University/internet2/Educause project)
n What students liked most about eTexts: cost
n However
n Used books are still generally less expensive
(plus you own them)
n Baron data: if cost of eBook and print were same
n US: 89% prefer hardcopy for school work
n Japan: 77% prefer hardcopy for school work
n Germany: 94% prefer hardcopy for school work
24University Student Reading Practices
US Responses
n Preferred platform for academic reading
n Heavily hardcopy (across genres and functions)
n Ownership, annotation, and rereading
n 61% typically sold textbooks at end of term
n 48% “occasionally” or “never” annotated texts
n More rereading in hardcopy than onscreen
n Text length
n For long texts, 92% preferred to read in hardcopy
n For short texts, even split between hardcopy and
onscreen
n Similar data for Japan, Germany
25University Student Reading Practices
US Responses (cont.)
n Memory
n 51% said remembered more when read in
hardcopy (46%: about same in two media)
n Distraction/Concentration
n 92% found it easier to concentrate when reading
in hardcopy
n Japan: 92%
n Germany: 94%
n Multitasking: “very often” + “sometimes”
n When reading in hardcopy: 25%
n When reading onscreen: 85%
26University Student Reading Practices
US Responses (cont.)
n Like most about reading onscreen
n “easy to look up additional information”
n “I can multitask when I read”
n Like least about reading onscreen
n “I get distracted”
n “I don’t absorb as much”
n Like most about reading in print
n “I can write on the pages and remember the
material easier”
n Like least about reading in print
n “Ctrl+F doesn’t work for hard copies!”
n “It takes me longer because I read more carefully”
27Multitasking, Addiction, Distraction
What the Literature Says
n Limits of Multitasking
n Central processing bottleneck (neuroimaging)
n Very few people are good cognitive multitaskers
n Kaiser Family Foundation: high student level of
multitasking while reading
n Brain plasticity: limited application to multitasking
n Internet addiction
n The Korean conundrum
n Initial decision to make all school texts digital (by 2015)
n High levels of internet addition in Korea among
young people caused government to pull back
28Other Issues with eReading
n Onscreen reading reshapes writing
n Increasingly write for reading on the prowl
n Redesigned USA Today (more like web page)
n Explosion of shorter text formats
n Kindle Singles, Snack Reads (“Perfect for your
lunch break, your commute, or right before bed”)
n Academic presses
n One-off reading
n When does medium matter?
n Maybe not with one-off reading
n Death of the print button
29Other Issues with eReading
(cont.)
n How social is reading?
n Marcel Proust: “On Reading” (1905)
n Conversation between reader and author
n Mortimer Adler: How to Read a Book (1940)
n Reader needs to react to every page
n Will social reading become the new norm?
n The physical side of reading
n Onscreen is ephemeral, not durable
n “Like most” about print
n “tactile interaction with reading material”
30Educational Consequences
n Online learning (courses, texts) favors
n Search, hyper reading over deep reading
n Short over long texts
n One-off reading over rereading, annotation
n Cost-savings valued over potential impact on
learning when reading onscreen
n Need better educational comparisons (current
data: basic comparative comprehension studies)
n Shifting attitudes towards value of durable
written word (redefinition of “written culture”)
31Psychological Consequences
n Distraction/concentration
n Digital devices with internet connections are not
designed for concentration
n Haptics of reading
n Durability of memory for what read, where in text
n Loss of “stumble-upon” opportunities
n Psychological value of books
n Will print books only have boutique value?
n If prices of eBooks remain low (especially through
price wars), will books in general be perceived to
have value?
32Challenge of eBooks to Notion of
What It Means to Read
n Reading is increasing done on networked
digital devices that were designed for
n search
n one-off reading
n multitasking
n Use of these devices unlikely to decline
n We must figure out how to retain the goals of
serious reading in this new literacy space
33Recommendations
n Make room for both
n eReading and print
n hyper reading and deep reading (Hayles)
n Teach students to read without distractions
n Foster respect for print, including knowing
which medium is appropriate for which text
n Train students how to do meaningful reading
onscreen (cf. teaching use of word processing)
n Model when not to use digital devices
n Driving, in class, in face-to-face conversation
34Recommendations
(cont.)
n Don’t abandon long-form reading assignments
n Examine and teach facts about environmental
costs of digital devices vs. paper
n Don’t assume teachers and parents are
obligated to always meet students “where they
live”
n Parents bought these devices for their progeny
n Schools have been assuming they must incorporate
digital devices into pedagogy (at all levels)
n “Adults” are responsible for weighing pros & cons of
networked digital technologies in education
35Reading Evolves
n The meaning (and goals) of reading have
evolved since the earliest emergence of
writing over 5,000 years ago
n New forms of reading are welcomed
n But: We must work to preserve beneficial
components of written culture, which are vital
for
n our intellectual development
n our personal well-being
n our sense of shared culture
36Thank you
Naomi S. Baron
American University
Washington, DC USA
nbaron@american.edu
Words Onscreen: The Fate of Reading in a Digital World
(2014, Oxford University Press)
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