In the article "Online Literacy Is a Lesser Kind" by The Chronicle of Higher Education, Mark Bauerlein wrote of a 2003 Nielsen warning:
"...a PDF file strikes users as a 'content blob,' and they won't read it unless they print it out. A 'booklike' page on screen, it seems, turns them off and sends them away."
The article itself was written in 2008. Now in 2012, eReaders like the Kindle, Nook and Apple iPad offer exactly what that Nielsen claimed turns people away: "booklike" pages on a computer screen.
Although "screen scanning" is still alive and well in Internet reading, it appears that some people have adapted to what the article refers to as slow, traditional reading on an electronic screen. When words are presented in exactly the same format as they would in print - they simply appear on a screen - I would tend to believe that readers opt for traditional reading over this new generation of scanning.
I think this has to do more with the purpose of a particular text, rather than the medium. I'm more likely to scan an article (whether online or in print) for quick information, but I'm far more likely to thoroughly read a story (whether on an eReader or in a book).
What do you think about Nielsen's 2003 warning? Do you think it was well-founded? And do you think it holds any truth today?
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