Dave and Lorraine of (different parts of) Canada,
I'm intrigued by your references to new experiences of reading online, eg,
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0623/p13s02-stin.html, etc.
I still find reading text online or offline digitally an uncomfortable,
edgy, somewhat anxious experience.
For me, reading began as an experience of deep leisure, solitude, physical
relaxation, freedom to let my attention wander or return, to put the page in
my lap or pick it up. It still is, when I'm with a physical printed page.
By contrast, reading material digitally feels goal-oriented, focused,
public, excessively active. I've got to move the cursor physically, decide
if I'm going to respond to an email or click a link, evaluate my time
online, sit up straight or manage the laptop weight and angle, think about
the battery perhaps. This is fine for research or quick communications, but
I miss the meditative idleness and pleasure I associate with "analog"
reading. Hence my interest in ratios of time spent in digital vs analog
reading and writing. I'm engaged by both, but in very different ways.
Actually, I can feel the sense of leisure return in writing digitally when
it is not correspondence or on deadline. But in reading, rarely.
Email accomplished. Got to get on to the next digest of
writingandthedigitallife! Don't want to miss anything!
Cheers,
Robert
New York City
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