Your Brain on E-Books

Monday, November 16th 2009 by Megan DolmancloseAuthor: Megan Dolman Name: Megan Dolman
Email: mdolman@iste.org
Site: http://www.iste.org
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Working with books, I’m very curious about people’s interest in e-books. I like to take informal polls whenever the subject comes up, and I usually ask the simple question, “Do you want a Kindle?” It’s enough to spark quite a conversation. I enjoy hearing the reasons people do or do not want an e-reader. There are people who would love to download whatever book they want whenever they way, or they really like the idea of carrying a light-weight digital device when they travel rather than lugging around a number of heavy books. There are also people that aren’t quite sold yet. They often say that they can’t imagine snuggling up to an e-reader to read a novel. And there are people who are not sure, but curious and want to try it before they decide.

The responses I get are usually based on reading preferences and lifestyles. I don’t usually hear about how e-books affect the way our brain reads and processes information, which is why I was intrigued by an New York Times blog post, “Does the Brian like E-Books?”

The Room for Debate article was made up of contributions from five experts: an English professor, an author, a professor of child development, a computer scientist and a professor of informatics. A common thread through each opinion was that e-books are different than traditional books and we read them differently. With e-books come more distractions such as hyperlinks and advertisements. In addition, we read with speed in mind. We download quickly and get the information we want with the click of a mouse and it raises the question of whether or not we still have time to think, process and analyze what we’re reading.

E-books are a relatively new technology and we can assume there is a lot of research to come on how they may affect us as readers, especially those that learn to read with e-books. While the research is conducted and debates are held, I think that it’s important to remember that we have control over how books (electronic or otherwise) are consumed, taught, and written. We may have to work harder to get distracted, and we may have to spend more time teaching our students the importance of analyzing what an author has written, but we shouldn’t let extra effort keep us from all the advantages of this technology or any technology. I think this is summed up nicely by one of the blog contributor’s, David Gelernter, “The tools (as usual) are neutral. It’s up to us to insist that onscreen reading enhance, not replace, traditional book reading.”