Hayles and Trask Response
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¶ 2 Leave a comment on paragraph 2 2 I believe that the concept of ‘reading’ can be attributed through many different formats and found in various avenues of the academic and social world, whether it be literary or not. I find that the evolution from reading physical pages to digital ones is an advancement that comes with its own varying degrees of difficulties and successes. The majority of these successes lead us in the direction of easier, and more efficient ways of finding information, sharing it and analyzing it with the world. Our ability to share information and correspondingly, acquire it, has become completely evolutionary compared to how we shared and gathered information decades and even centuries ago. However, this ability to access text and materials online also does come with its issues as we have discussed in previous classes. There are benefits and lessons we can take from reading and utilizing physical text compared to digital text. Digital text, while convenient, is extremely distracting and makes it harder for the majority of us to focus. One of the only ways, I myself, and others can focus on digital text is if it short and to the point, because it limits the changes of my mind straying to other unrelated things. The increasing amount of advertising and marketing done through web pages and even with e-readers make it difficult to concentrate specifically on the text you are reading. Physical books and materials do not have this consistent issue.
¶ 3 Leave a comment on paragraph 3 1 As a proactive reader, and someone who enjoys sitting down and reading a good book, I find that having the physical book in my hands is much more rewarding and it also gives me a sense of familiarity because this is what I have grown up with. I have had the privilege to grow through the last twenty years and witness the advancements in technology. I remember what life was like before we had smartphones, iPads, and wireless headphones. I still even vividly remember using floppy disks and portable CD players and VHS as being the cool technological advancements of their time. Many of these ‘older’ forms of technology, or even reading a physical book, are things I grew up with so they give me a sense of comfort. Yet, because of the age I have grown up in, I also had to learn how to use these advancing forms of technology. I use Ebooks almost as much as I read regular books now, and I have found a satisfying familiarity in both. For me, I think it is beneficial to focus on teaching a healthy mix of both kinds of reading, physical and digital. Both formats have their equal advantages and disadvantages, and ultimately it is up to the individual to decide which works best for them. Incorporating both the ‘old’ and the ‘new’ ways together can offer us much more than simply focusing on educating with only one.
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I think this too, that reading is reading and we should consider the progression to digital formats as an advancement rather than a burden; and you word it perfectly that it “comes with its own varying degrees of difficulties and successes”–true, and this is where the whole topic argument stems from.
Is it the digital text that’s distracting, or the platform/device the text is displayed on? For example, if I was to read a digital text novel on my Kindle, working with only the white space and text, versus reading a digital text novel free on Free Novel Online on the computer, where there are pop ups from ads.revcontent.com jumping out at me, the difference is substantial. Again, how you said that digital formats come with varying degrees is wholly correct, in that I would hate to pile all digital text platforms, from iPhone reading to iPad reading to Kindle to computer to iPod and even watch reading, together and call them all bad, rather than saying they have their ups and downs when it comes to benefits.
I’d like to see you ground your thinking more clearly in response to the text. I see you summarizing bits and pieces of Hayles’ argument here, but you don’t engage with any of her arguments directly, nor do you appear to be realizing that you are, in fact, in agreement with many of her points.