Kelly's English 250 Blog

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Reading Digital vs. Printed

Reading the Fall of the House of usher in both a paper and digital form made be think about how I absorb information differently, depending on how I am reading it. The first time I read this was on my computer. The pros to reading things digitally, (computer, phone, tablet, etc) is that it is cheaper, it doesn’t waste paper, and the tools used for this are smaller than most books. On the other hand, the cons to reading things digitally is that it is harder to annotate, it is easier to lose your place, and it is very easy to get distracted while using technology while reading and learning because most people cannot efficiently multi-task. The second time around, I printed the PDF version of the story and read it printed on paper. When I read it this time, the story made a lot more sense to me and I was able to take notes in the margins and highlight words I was uncertain about. Pros to reading things printed is that there is no battery life, you can write on the pages, and it is easier to follow along. However, the cons to reading this way is that it is more expensive and it wastes more paper. I leaned that the best way fro me to absorb information is by interacting with it. When I am able to look up definitions, ask myself questions, and underline main ideas I can better follow my train of thought.

3 Comments

  1. That’s why I think that hypothesi.s is such an interesting device! It makes doing all those things digitally pretty easy, although I agree in the enjoying the feeling of ink on paper. There is something about it that connects to my memory better than doing it digitally. It’s also easier to look back over, but doing it digitally would mean I would never lose my annotations. I guess there are pros and cons to everything

  2. I enjoyed reading about you’re experience reading the Fall of the House of Usher digitally and online and the pros and cons of each format. I agree with the list of positives and negatives regarding online reading such as lower costs of books and decrease in paper use. I think that annotating online could be a positive because there are various tools that enable readers to create public or private annotations on text. Additionally, I agree that reading the paper version of the book increased my understanding of the story .

  3. I enjoy the thought of comparing the pros and cons of reading online or a traditional book and/or something printed.

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