I don’t care about your children but good for them, I guess. It’s never about the medium, it’s about the content, so if you like to read on screens, paper, cut books or toilet paper, it doesn’t matter. Only the content matters. Audiobooks are okay too.
New research suggests it is slightly about the medium (for the kids, idk about adults it wasn’t discussed). Physical books are better for attention span, apparently because they have “friction”, i.e., you have to turn the page yourself so you “work” for the information, which makes information “valuable” so you hold onto it.
I guess we can have crank-powered e-readers where you have to work to turn the page?
Your brain works differently listening to audiobooks than reading. So it’s not necessarily a substitute, in that you may not get the same out of the text.
Having said that, my wife is a bit ADHD and struggles to read books, but is addicted to audiobooks. 😅
Man, people like you are why others hate reading. You hurt my business by thinking that the medium choice grants you some form of moral/intellectual superiority, and you hurt other’s enjoyment by boasting about it. Stop looking at the finger and start looking at the moon.
People, read books on the medium that you are more confortable with, be it screen or paper. Treat your books however the fuck you want. Listen to books if you don’t have the time/focus to read. Be a sleazy fuck and watch the movie/series about the book if you’re not really into it. What? There’s a video game about it? Play it.
It’s never about the cup, it’s about the wine inside it. Confront yourselves to new ideas and stories, because that’s what it is all about, not “carving mental holes in your books to put your mental wee-wee inside, because paper is sacred”.
Wanna imagine things with your brain but can’t be bothered to read boring stuff? Play tabletop roleplaying games, it’s even more effective because you’re actively engaging in it.
Got aphantasia, you were born without the capacity to imagine what you read as you read it? Watch the movie.
Got dyslexia? Bored at the gym? Stuck in traffic?Audiobook.
Etc etc.
If you have one fucking thing to take away from this rant, it’s : it’s not about the cup, it’s about the wine. If you can’t get that, you’re not a reader, you’re a fetishist and you’re hurting the one thing you care about (and probably would read the most toxic shit and swallow it just because it’s printed on paper).
I have no idea who you are, aside from what you’ve stated in these comments, but you clearly have a great passion for the core concept of what stories are capable of.
Just wanted to make it known I respect that passion, and am uplifted by knowing it exists out there somewhere. Cheers for that. 💛
Just so you’re aware, your posts in this thread come across as very belligerent to me. I’m trying to ignore the tone that I perceive, and to clarify.
My understanding had been that the brain worked differently based on how it was getting text. I did a bit of DuckDuckGo and it turns out that further research shows that these differences are not that big:
I am extremely belligerent against people who gatekeep joy and self-cultivation by confining it to text on paper only, because by doing so they spit on a lot more of artists and engineers’ faces.
Books are valid, audiobooks are valid, comics are valid, movies are valid, TV shows are valid, TTRPGs are valid, video games are valid, etc etc.
Especially video games, since they are at the crossroad of all art and engineering forms (drawing, 3d modelling, music, programming, writing, acting, voice acting, animation, etc etc).
I don’t care about your children but good for them, I guess. It’s never about the medium, it’s about the content, so if you like to read on screens, paper, cut books or toilet paper, it doesn’t matter. Only the content matters. Audiobooks are okay too.
New research suggests it is slightly about the medium (for the kids, idk about adults it wasn’t discussed). Physical books are better for attention span, apparently because they have “friction”, i.e., you have to turn the page yourself so you “work” for the information, which makes information “valuable” so you hold onto it.
I guess we can have crank-powered e-readers where you have to work to turn the page?
Your brain works differently listening to audiobooks than reading. So it’s not necessarily a substitute, in that you may not get the same out of the text.
Having said that, my wife is a bit ADHD and struggles to read books, but is addicted to audiobooks. 😅
Man, people like you are why others hate reading. You hurt my business by thinking that the medium choice grants you some form of moral/intellectual superiority, and you hurt other’s enjoyment by boasting about it. Stop looking at the finger and start looking at the moon.
People, read books on the medium that you are more confortable with, be it screen or paper. Treat your books however the fuck you want. Listen to books if you don’t have the time/focus to read. Be a sleazy fuck and watch the movie/series about the book if you’re not really into it. What? There’s a video game about it? Play it.
It’s never about the cup, it’s about the wine inside it. Confront yourselves to new ideas and stories, because that’s what it is all about, not “carving mental holes in your books to put your mental wee-wee inside, because paper is sacred”.
Wanna imagine things with your brain but can’t be bothered to read boring stuff? Play tabletop roleplaying games, it’s even more effective because you’re actively engaging in it.
Got aphantasia, you were born without the capacity to imagine what you read as you read it? Watch the movie.
Got dyslexia? Bored at the gym? Stuck in traffic?Audiobook.
Etc etc.
If you have one fucking thing to take away from this rant, it’s : it’s not about the cup, it’s about the wine. If you can’t get that, you’re not a reader, you’re a fetishist and you’re hurting the one thing you care about (and probably would read the most toxic shit and swallow it just because it’s printed on paper).
I have no idea who you are, aside from what you’ve stated in these comments, but you clearly have a great passion for the core concept of what stories are capable of.
Just wanted to make it known I respect that passion, and am uplifted by knowing it exists out there somewhere. Cheers for that. 💛
Just so you’re aware, your posts in this thread come across as very belligerent to me. I’m trying to ignore the tone that I perceive, and to clarify.
My understanding had been that the brain worked differently based on how it was getting text. I did a bit of DuckDuckGo and it turns out that further research shows that these differences are not that big:
https://benjaminfranklininstitute.org/books-vs-audiobooks-is-reading-always-better-for-your-brain-than-listening/
I am extremely belligerent against people who gatekeep joy and self-cultivation by confining it to text on paper only, because by doing so they spit on a lot more of artists and engineers’ faces.
Books are valid, audiobooks are valid, comics are valid, movies are valid, TV shows are valid, TTRPGs are valid, video games are valid, etc etc.
Especially video games, since they are at the crossroad of all art and engineering forms (drawing, 3d modelling, music, programming, writing, acting, voice acting, animation, etc etc).
My take is that this person being an author probably had this very same discussion thousands of times.
There’s also a nice screen rant by John Green (author, but I have yet to reada any of his books) somewhere on YouTube on the exact same topic.