Tag Archives: Best of Both Worlds

Can I have both?

In the article “The Reading Brain in the Digital Age”, Ferris Jabr writes about the unique advantages of reading on paper and the disadvantages of reading on digital screens supported by research studies across the nation. The results of these studies show that, because of the taxation on the brain from reading on screens we do not gain as much understanding when compared to reading on paper. The article also talks about how reading on screens may be better for scanning or short readings of digital texts while books are better for in depth reading. But why are we comparing when we can have both. Just like having CDs and digital music, the concept is the same, where CDs are like books and digital music is digital text. With that in mind, it’s been a while since the introduction of digital music and yet the CD is still relevant, so we see that nothing can take away the good old school–but to add on it because of the ever changing world. An example of this is given in the  article “The Cobweb.” by  Jill Lepore. Just like the famous library of Alexandria we now have a web of all webs which is a sort of digital version of the library of Alexandria. Thanks to this Internet archive there is now an alternate and/or additional way of storing, researching and finding information. Notice also that this Internet archive does not take away from a traditional library but uses it as a blueprint to create new avenues in this modern technological age.