To me “screen reading is” just reading something on a screen, instead of on a physical piece of paper. “Screen reading” might also be defined as or looked at as a sort of skimming. I think that when people read more on a screen the less information they take in vs when it’s in their physical hand. Kind of like writing. You retain more information when you write stuff down than when you just type it up or copy and paste it.
I think that multimedia, hyperlinks, interactivity, and sharing essentials are part of the way we use texts today. I believe this because it draws more people in on reading on screens. With hyperlinks, it helps provide previous information on other things that might be relevant. Interactivity gives you the ability to learn and read things from a different aspect. I will say I can see and understand how multimedia, hyperlinks, interactivity, and sharing essentials are a distraction. These things can also take us away from the reading where we end up getting distracted and not finishing the book, or getting distracted and thinking the reading was finished when in fact it was not, there were just too many things going on.
From what Hayles has to say in the essays I really like when she brings up the question “How does media stimulation affect the brain?” (192). This really got me thinking about all the ways that media and our exposure to media have affected our day-to-day life. Not only with just digital reading but with everything from social media, to watching shows, and even just texting someone. We all know that technology affects us and our brain function somehow. Hayles goes on to elaborate that “Children growing up in media-rich environments literally have brains wired differently from those of people who did not come to maturity under that condition” (192). As time has gone on and technology has developed children are getting more and more access to technology. But with that technology is really helping them focus and work on things.
“As students move deeper into the mode of hyper attention, educators face a choice: change the students to fit the educational environment or change that environment to fit the students.”
– Katherine Hayles (195)
As I have grown up my reading habits have really changed right alongside my writing habits. With reading, I will say I have never really been “into reading” but when I did read when I was younger it was always like hard copy and book form. But once I started high school to college my reading was really only based on the school. But this is when my writing changed in high school we were given tablets and all of our work was done on that. Teachers didn’t require notebooks anymore, they were recommended but not required anymore. That is when my writing changed and it became mostly digital and less physical.
I think over time my writing has really changed and improved but my reading “level” has probably lowered due to digital reading and multimedia learning.