Gary Frost, at his blog FotB (Future of the Book), offers up “ten popular fallacies of screen reading advocates” with his take on each one.
1. There is an analog/digital divide in the technologies of information transmission. (If there is any divide it is between paper and screen based reading.)
2. There is something distinctive about being “born digital”. (All information is born digital. How it grows up provides the distinction.)
3. We are experiencing a one-way transition from paper to screen. (Its actually a two-way, not a one-way transition.)
4. Screen based books can be equivalent to print books. (This assumption overlooks legibility, haptic efficiencies, default persistence and self-authentication attributes of print transmission that are not provided in screen reading.)
5. The only history is the future. (Every revolutionary functionality of the book awaits rediscovery out of the past.)
6. The print book is at best an accessory of screen reading. (Screen reading and digital connectivity is an accessory, or bibliographic utility, of the print book.)
7. We can dismiss the functionality of the physical book because the attributes of screen reading are overwhelming. (Dismiss the attributes of the physical book and you also dismiss the functionality of sustained reading. The constraints of the physical book are instructional efficiencies that the nurture of reading skills of all kinds.)
8. Screen based delivery of text is self-indexing and searchable. (Print, unlike screen text, is self-authenticating. Print text is immutable, content encompassed and a reliable witness, all opposite of screen characteristics. Touch screen voting, census automation and many other automated tabulations from traffic control to genetic modification confirm the importance of authentication.)
9. Change is speeding up, leaving the print book behind. (The digital technologies will also engender a Renaissance of print. Paradigm change occurred in the 19th century with the advents of instant telecommunication, electrical power, digital encoding, keyboard interface and photo imaging. Since then change has been slowing down)
10. Print reading will die off with aging readers. (Youthful readers are perennially attracted to audio and visual reading while mature readers perennially assimilate sustained print reading.)
I agree with Mr Frost that we are looking at technologies that at best supplement or complement the book. Any talk of replacement is utopian (or dystopian) and minimizes the significant role that the book has played throughout our history. Yes, change is good and welcome but replacement is bound to have enormous cultural consequences.