The discussion we had in class last week in combination with this week’s reading definitely got me thinking about the differences between printed text and electronic text. Our class discussion last week was largely centered on the concept of the “integrity” of books. We discussed the act of tearing pages out of books for any purpose and surprisingly, this act was meant with vehement opposition by some and support by others. With this discussion still in my mind, I began the reading assigned for this week which discussed the differences between printed texts, such as books, and electronic texts. This immediately got me to thinking about the different ways that both forms of texts are treated and the amount of respect accorded to each.
It was clear to me from last week’s discussion about books, that many people attribute an enormous amount of respect toward books. Some people would refuse to tear pages from books or to damage them in any significant way because of their tremendous respect for books and the benefits that they could potentially bring to others. In addition, some said that they would not throw away their books and I found myself, for the most part, in agreement with this stance. While I may not always reread (or even read the first time) some of the books in my possession, I cannot see myself disposing of very many books in that fashion.
From this point, I began considering how much “respect” is given to electronic texts. It immediately occurred to me that the type of respect given to printed texts, particularly books, was not present for electronic texts. We frequently “virtually discard” of these texts in several fashions. One example of this could be deleting a PDF file or other document that contains electronic text from a PC hard drive, essentially throwing it away to the recycle bin. Another example of “virtually discarding” a electronic text could be observed through permanently deleting a section of text from a web page or blog. While the site or blog would undoubtedly by cached somewhere on the internet, the document that appears when loading the page, I would consider this the real document, would be forever changed. While these examples may seem a little bit outside of the box or extreme, I would posit that they are similar in nature to the acts of tearing out a page of a book or discarding a book entirely.
The readings make clear that there are significant differences in the way that digital texts and printed texts are created by their writers and viewed by their readers. I believe that this is unquestionably true, at least in my own personal experience, and that is demonstrated in the different ways that I utilize each of the formats. I prefer to read and study from the printed form of text but often find that it is easier and quicker to read and study the same text in electronic form. Additionally, I often prefer to at least part of my papers, even if it is just an outline, in handwriting. Mentally, this helps me to better formulate ideas. However, in the end, the bulk of my writing is done electronically by virtue of its readability and speed.
In closing, it is undoubtedly true that there are differences between digital texts and printed texts and one of these differences that should be further explored is the amount of “respect” that is assigned to each.
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