
The Science of Paper versus Screens (2013) - kawera
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/reading-paper-screens/
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gnicholas
> _Sellen has learned that many people do not feel much ownership of e-books
> because of their impermanence and intangibility: "They think of using an
> e-book, not owning an e-book," she says._

I'm sure most people haven't thought it through that deeply, but when you
acquire an ebook, you don't actually own it. All you have is a license to use
it for the duration of your life. You can't bequeath it to your heirs when you
die, and you can't give it to a friend when you're done reading it. In most
cases, you can't even lend it to a friend for a limited period.

~~~
leetcrew
depending on your definition of "own", you might not own a physical book
either. you just have a transferable license. you can read it, you can give it
to a friend or heir, but you can't make a copy and both read it at the same
time.

~~~
gnicholas
Under US law, this isn’t a “transferable license”. You have bought the book
and enjoy the rights under the first sale doctrine. The fact that there exist
copyright laws that prevent you from doing certain things with the book does
not make this into a license. That would be like saying that “you don’t buy a
baseball bat, you acquire a limited license under which you may hit balls, but
not people, with it.

------
gnicholas
> _those who had to scroll through the continuous text did not do as well on
> the attention and working-memory tests. Wästlund thinks that scrolling—which
> requires a reader to consciously focus on both the text and how they are
> moving it—drains more mental resources than turning or clicking a page,
> which are simpler and more automatic gestures._

This would indicate that using page-down or space bar to scroll through
websites would be better than manually scrolling. But I find the opposite is
true, since so many websites have opaque toolbars at the top/bottom. So when I
hit [space] and it shifts the content up by one-screenful, it's actually
scrolling too far. So then I have to back up using the arrow keys or by
scrolling manually.

It's too bad browsers don't have a setting to make it so that page-down only
goes 85% of the way or something like that, to avoid this issue. Of course,
you'd still have to hunt to find where the next line ended up.

~~~
commandlinefan
I think I read faster and retain more when I read actual paper rather than
reading something onscreen, too - nice to see this corroborated. I do feel
like I get judged when I read a physical book at work (staring at a book for
more than an hour or so brings the boss around to ask 'what are you up to
there, commandlinefan? Keepin' busy?'), whereas nobody bats an eye when I
spend all day staring at my computer monitor, so I lean toward digital "books"
like O'Reilly Safari for learning even though they feel less efficient.

~~~
jfoutz
The feel and the smell of books engages me a bit more than a screen does. When
I’m really into a book, it’s much more likely that the texture of the stack of
pages will pull me out than my partner saying it’s time for dinner.

Books are weird.

