I Read vs. iPad

A product development group’s study recently found that readers read more quickly on paper than on e-readers, the iPad in particular.  Ian Paul, of PC World, writes

So it appears technology hasn’t quite figured out yet how to replicate the experience of the printed page. That said this study leaves a lot to be desired owing to its small test group size, but it would be interesting to see a similar study on a much larger scale. I’d be curious to find out, for example, if there’s any big difference in reading speeds based on age groups.

Paul is right to point out that the test group leaves much to be desired (only 24 people who already read with frequency) and I agree that a larger study would be intriguing.   Do reluctant readers, for instance, find the device on which they read to make a difference in a text’s readability?  Or, are some works better read on some devices (this study uses Hemingway’s short stories). There are other considerations raised by this study, too.

Reading Faster is Better

Or so one would think based on this study.  Why is reading speed so important?  Speed is important, perhaps, if one’s job requires them to sift through piles of information in search of only useful data.  Sure, then speed matters.  But, does speed help or hinder one’s experience of reading for pleasure?  Is speed pleasurable?  Or, what if you are reading to think more deeply about yourself as a person (a kind of reading we could all do more of… our young adult students are no exception)?  Is rapid reading a positive attribute in that case?  The emphasis on quick reading suggests to me that the study does privilege a certain kind of reading: reading for specific uses.  This kind of reading runs the risk of ignoring other reasons for reading… readings that aren’t easily aligned with the work-place or with data-gathering.

There Must Be a BEST Way to Read

This study makes you think there is a best way to read out there.  One would think reading more quickly or with clearest comprehension is necessarily a good thing.  And yet, reading slowly in order to enjoy a story or reading a story that defies comprehension can be convincingly argued to have a place and value (consider the kind of confusion, for instance, Italo Calvino masters or that Milton creates through his convoluted Latinate style).  And why choose one over the other?  I would argue that it is much more valuable to teach students to ask themselves what kind of reading experiences they wish or want to have with a particular text.  A student who chooses to read an article on an iPad or a novel on paper (or vice versa) is making a choice that can rightly be ascribed to a maturing reader.  And likely a lifelong one, too.

Who Reads, Not What is Read (or What it’s Read On)

Our attention is misguided if we find so interesting the reading pace of a small study group on iPads while neglecting the more important question: why do these readers read at all.  And equally, why don’t some readers read at all?  The real subject of study is NOT the text that is read or the machine that presents it.  The real subject is the reader.  It is the reader who reads and without whom there is not text or text-presenter.  And all readers CHOOSE to read; they cannot be forced to.  Why readers do and don’t read is–in my mind–a central question in this age of new literacies and technologies.  How they read is also essential.  But, on what they read?  That is only of interest if it helps answer the former questions. We must always come back to who reads and why.  Without that, studies like this one are of only fleeting interest at best and will be quick to go the way of yesterday’s iPad.

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