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> As long as children are taught to read on paper books, we will have an emotional connection to the printed page. I've learned to read on paper books and I ha
by HSO 7y ago
> As long as children are taught to read on paper books, we will have an emotional connection to the printed page.
I've learned to read on paper books and I have zero attachment to them at this point.
In fact, I cringe when I occasionally have no alternative (or just scan it myself if it's not too much).
Old books now seem to be broken to me. You can't do anything with them except read (linearly). So much functionality is missing, it's unbearable :DD
I have no idea how representative my experience is but I know of at least a few others who feel similarly.
- inimino 7y ago> You can't do anything with them except read (linearly). And write on them, scribble in them, underline them, draw in their margins, use colored pens and pencils and highlighters, check the index, flip through them, give them to anyone with your annotations and get them back with theirs, rip pages out of them, sew them back together, rebind them, burn them, store them for thousands of years without electricity or maintenance in no higher technology than a clay jar (assuming acid free paper!), hold them upside down and learn to read them that way, stop doors and weigh down papers on a desk with them, or just admire them on a bookshelf. But yes, the most obvious thing you can do with them is simply to read them linearly, and this lack of frivolity is by far the best thing about them.
- theli0nheart 7y agoWhat you're describing is functional attachment. Emotionally, how would you feel if all of the printed books in the world were to disappear today? Would you miss them?
- HSO 7y agoI don‘t think I would. I just don‘t see the point anymore. Don‘t get me wrong, I once was a romantic too! :) I used to spend entire afternoons after school in the bookstore or libraries and had a pretty good library. Now when I see paper books I groan a little. Too heavy, too much material/waste, too impractical, and most of all kind of fusty. What‘s the point.
- tracker1 7y agoTrees are a renewable resource... we can, and do grow more when they're used for paper. Or do you worry about running out of lettuce or carrots? I get that it may be impractical for some... for some of us, we have a VERY hard time remembering long form content without the additional context a physical book provides. I simply cannot hold over 200 or so pages of content without that extra content... I get completely lost most of the time around page 50 in an eReader. I don't know how to describe it better. I can eat through 800 pages or so of a highly technical book in a weekend. I'm lucky if I can get through 100 pages on an eReader in that same time-frame. Why do I get as irritated by this? Because, I'm not trying to stop the production of eReaders, which do have a LOT of actual environmental waste, compared to a few thousand books.
- HSO 7y agoI don‘t have an opinion on the macro picture of whether paper books are a net drag or benefit to the environment because I haven‘t done the math. I was only responding to OP that being taught on paper books somehow means lifelong attachment. I grew up in a paper world and like I said now even have „negative attachment“ to paper. That‘s one counterexample, and I know a few others. Soclearly it‘s not a general truth.
- sateesh 7y agoOld books now seem to be broken to me. You can't do anything with them except read (linearly) At times this is a plus too. While reading online many a times I get distracted by some reference and go tangential looking for more details on that than moving on with the book.
- HSO 7y agoThe „trick“ I use is I‘m offline by default and have to „turn the internet on“ on most devices (except the phone). Been doing thst for 8 years now, works pretty well.