Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Children prefer to read books on paper rather than screens

theconversation.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 95 posts

Re: Children prefer to read books on paper rather than screens

#71

Post by rpeden »

koolba wrote: post #2

It's anecdata, but I know I much prefer a physical book to a digital one. Even more so for documents (not source code) that I'm reviewing.

I think that in some cases, it can even be helpful for source code.

There have been a couple of times where I wanted to understand how an interesting library or bit of code worked, so I printed the code out and made notes right on the page as I read through it.

I'm sure I could have accomplished the same thing digitally - but for some reason, the knowledge seems to 'stick' more quickly when I'm writing out the notes physically on the same page as the code.

IIRC, one of the developers in 'Coders at Work' liked to print out code he was working on to help him develop an understanding of it. I think it was Josh Bloch, but it's been a while since I've read the book.

All of this is also anecdotal, but I think it's worth a try for anyone who hasn't. It might be useless for most people, but I believe in experimenting with different ways of absorbing information to find out what works best with your brain.

Re: Children prefer to read books on paper rather than screens

#73

Post by mbrock »

colmvp wrote: post #50
MarkMc wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm often reading in bed or on the sofa where highlighting would be a pain with a physical book - with my Kindle app it's so easy. What's even better is how quickly I can access my highlighted notes. I often find I'm in a conversation with someone and say, "hey there's a great quote on the topic we are discussing from book I read years ago - let me show it to you".

I just wish the "Your Highlights" interface online was faster and better designed. It just feels like they did it to placate users but didn't put a lot of care or effort into making it feel like a great experience.

A few times I've wanted to make a script to download all those highlights into a text file, but I've never bothered... would still be really nice though.

Re: Children prefer to read books on paper rather than screens

#74

Post by sevensor »

rpeden wrote: post #71
koolba wrote: post #2

It's anecdata, but I know I much prefer a physical book to a digital one. Even more so for documents (not source code) that I'm reviewing.

I think that in some cases, it can even be helpful for source code. There have been a couple of times where I wanted to understand how an interesting library or bit of code worked, so I printed the code out and made notes right on the page as I read through it. I'm sure I could have accomplished the same thing digitally - but for some reason, the knowledge seems to 'stick' more quickly when I'm writing out the notes…

> There have been a couple of times where I wanted to understand how an interesting library or bit of code worked, so I printed the code out and made notes right on the page as I read through it.

I do this as well, although I usually get a page or two in, figure out what the code does, and regret printing out the rest. Still worth doing, but I need to train myself to waste less paper.

Re: Children prefer to read books on paper rather than screens

#75

Post by soperj »

jobu wrote: post #22
chromalife wrote: post #6

I prefer having a physical book. Flicking through pages to reread sections, highlighting and margin notes are not yet seamless with the reading app I'm using. But Getting a tablet has increased the amount I'm reading by at least a factor of 4. It is now so easy to buy books after reading a recommendation online. The free sample feature makes it so I don't buy a book I won't like, And the built in dictionary has me lo…

> Having said all that my kids will be getting physical books. The distractions in electronic devices is something I'm still struggling Having four kids myself, I would never have tried to start them reading on a device. Kids don't start reading novels or textbooks, they have books that are physically interactive in a way that doesn't translate very well to a screen. Starting out, children learn by touch and taste as…

Dude. P.D Eastman.

Re: Children prefer to read books on paper rather than screens

#76

Post by gnicholas »

This article significantly misrepresents the study. It says that children prefer to read on paper than on devices, which indicates that children were asked about their preferences, or asked about habits that are likely to reveal their preferences. This is not the case.

Subjects were never asked which they liked better, and the underlying research report clearly indicates that the differences in their behavior between reading on screen and on paper could be due to their lack of awareness of where to get free ebooks.

Since kids don't have credit cards, they wouldn't be able to buy Kindle books, and might not even have an account. So looking at observational data about what kids use to read books is not a good way to determine what kids "prefer" in this instance. You'd have to give kids the same books in paper and on digital and then see which one they end up reading.

The underlying research is fine, and appropriately nuanced. The article describing it is misleading clickbait.

Re: Children prefer to read books on paper rather than screens

#77

Post by cglouch »

problems wrote: post #53
zingermc wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's more than nostalgia -- interacting with a physical object is more stimulating than an e-reader. Paper books have a smell, a texture, and a colorful cover. You might remember where something happened in a story because of how many pages you held in your hand.

So... entirely fluff and nothing practical then?

At least for me, the "fluff" ends up being quite practical. I often remember stuff by thinking back to where I saw it in the book. With a physical book, my brain associates content with where I read it on the page (left vs right), how far into the book it was (judging by the depth of the pages), and what the book looked/felt like and weighed. All of this lets me recall information more easily, because the physical sensations jog my memory. Maybe I don't remember the proof of some theorem right away, but then I remember it was on the right page, towards the end of the book, and then for whatever reason it comes back to me.

Perhaps I'm weird in this sense but I know a couple people who remember stuff similarly. It matters more for textbooks or academic literature where I'm trying to recall specific information; with novels it's not as necessary.

Re: Children prefer to read books on paper rather than screens

#78

Post by 99183912 »

problems wrote: post #53
zingermc wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's more than nostalgia -- interacting with a physical object is more stimulating than an e-reader. Paper books have a smell, a texture, and a colorful cover. You might remember where something happened in a story because of how many pages you held in your hand.

So... entirely fluff and nothing practical then?

Not outsourcing one's semantic network to Google and Amazon seems highly practical, unless one is a drone.

Re: Children prefer to read books on paper rather than screens

#79

Post by robarr »

chromalife wrote: post #6

I prefer having a physical book. Flicking through pages to reread sections, highlighting and margin notes are not yet seamless with the reading app I'm using. But Getting a tablet has increased the amount I'm reading by at least a factor of 4. It is now so easy to buy books after reading a recommendation online. The free sample feature makes it so I don't buy a book I won't like, And the built in dictionary has me lo…

Yes, we read more now that tablets are here, but at least in my experience, we kind of also ´cheat´, skipping pages (are there even pages anymore?) and glancing ahead... in my more physical book reading times i felt skipping pages was a betrayal of the author´s intentions, now i am just in a hurry and really want only to know how it ends and if all the knots are tied. And we can do this beacause electronic books have put A LOT of lesser readings in our hands, books we never would have bought or even read in our physical book reading times. It´s just like buying a 1 dollar app: you play with it for a few days, then forget about it.

If you really think about it, that´s NOT reading.

We all should go visit https://www.gutenberg.org/ and start reading on a tablet, you know, real books.

Post reply on HN