Wednesday, December 30, 2009

How Technology is Reshaping the Reading Habit

Link to December 30 NPR story, "How E-Books Will Change Reading and Writing". (via Resource Shelf)

Excerpt: "When printed books first became popular, thanks to Gutenberg's press, you saw this great expansion of eloquence and experimentation," says [writer Nicholas] Carr. "All of which came out of the fact that here was a technology that encouraged people to read deeply, with great concentration and focus. And as we move to the new technology of the screen ... it has a very different effect, an almost opposite effect, and you will see a retreat from the sophistication and eloquence that characterized the printed page."

As digital platforms proliferate, writers are trying to figure out how to use them. Novelist Rick Moody recently wrote a story on the social networking site Twitter. Moody says he got intrigued by the idea of writing in abbreviated form to fit within the 140-character limitations of each Twitter post.

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