One of the new trends in information science is the idea that reading is changing. We no longer work our way down the page, taking in the words in a left to right, linear direction. The explosion of technology (namely online technology) means that we read differently: we scan, we see the big picture, we are in a new cloud of text.Last semester, Dr. Matt Kirschenbaum of Maryland University visited campus for the SLIS Colloquium series. He delivered a fascinating presentation titled "The Remaking of Reading."
It was his presentation I had in mind when my Google reader updated with an entry on a Biblioroll. This nifty little gadget fosters "reading activity in ubiquitous computing environment." The device displays different texts at the same time to encourage comparison and simultaneous reading.
This is a new device but I have an eerie feeling were on the verge of an increasing trend. Do you think more tools like this, which encourage non-linear reading, will start springing up more often? If so, what do you think this means for the activity of reading and how we process information?
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