In the periodical stacks of University of Puget Sound's Collins Memorial Library. Photograph by The Child.
"The pages of a book shield us from the distractions that bombard us during most of our waking hours. As an informational medium, the book focuses our attention, encouraging the kind of immersion in a story or an argument that promotes deep comprehension and deep learning."
—from "The Medium Matters" by Nicholas Carr, as found on the NYT Room for Debate blog
Amen.
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I read online and I jump from bit to bit, byte to byte, pixel to pixel. I hyperlink. I fall down one rabbit hole and then another. Soon, I am so far from my starting point that the mind boggles.
I have to jot notes to myself on scraps of paper, Post-it® notes, the backs of envelopes to provide myself reference points. I have to click "back" to return and then "return" again. Two steps forward and two steps back.
Wasn't I just here? Wasn't I just here? Wasn't I just here? Wait... Wasn't I just here?
I leave digital crumbs for my Hansel-und-Gretel avatar.
Tiny crawler bots pick them up, scour them, devour them, digest them.
I turn and there is nothing there: a blank slate, tabula rasa. Welcome to the new world order.
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I like the physicality of books. I like the tactile memory that they impart to me.
I can flip through the pages of a book I have read and locate myself in print, in place. Try to do that with your digital book. Sure, you can "search" it for a particular word, but what if you don't know where it is at? How do you orient yourself without stars, constellations?
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I like the intimacy of one relationship at a time. I want breadth and depth. Shallow doesn't suit me. I want time. I want investment. I want real estate.
Virtual fails me.
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