In the middle of this month, the Shanghai education department revealed that when the school starts in September this year, schools in various districts in Shanghai will use the "e-bag" on a pilot basis. In two or three years, "e-books" may completely replace paper textbooks. Once this news was released, it once again aroused public concern about the fate of paper books and paper reading.
Since the beginning of the new century, digital reading has rapidly entered everyone's life at an incalculable speed. It not only creates a new way of reading and changes the traditional reading habits, but also profoundly affects a series of links such as book creation, editing and publishing. In this context, paper books, which represent traditional reading methods, gradually lose their original status and even face the possibility of disappearing.
However, just as people increasingly believe that paper books will eventually be replaced by e-books, different surveys, data, phenomena and discussions have repeatedly shown that most ordinary readers still regard paper books as more valuable and meaningful reading carriers, and they agree that the cultural weight carried by paper books cannot be replaced by an ordinary e-reader.
Therefore, although digital reading has irresistibly reconstructed everyone's understanding of reading, what can really change is only the way, not the concept.
Paper books are still the reading preference of most people.
The Joan Ganz Cooney Center recently released a new survey. In 1200 parents with parent-child reading experience, most of them think that paper books are still their reading preference and that of their children. Some studies have pointed out that if children are more immersed in the reading of enhanced e-books than paper books, their reading comprehension ability may decline.
In fact, although digital reading is becoming more and more convenient, people can read a lot anytime and anywhere, but the traditional reading pursuit deeply rooted in the concept is not as easy to disappear as imagined.
According to the data of the ninth national reading survey published in April this year, the contact rate of various digital reading methods, such as online reading, mobile phone reading, e-reader reading, CD-ROM reading, PDA/MP4/MP5 reading, has increased to varying degrees in 20 1 1 year, while the reading volume of paper books has increased slowly. However, the survey results also show that 75.3% of the people aged 65,438+08-70 prefer "reading with paper books", and 65,438+065,438+0.8% of digital readers admit to buying paper books after reading e-books. This result shows that paper books are still the reading preference of most people. Reading through paper books can stimulate readers' interest in reading, and the collection value of paper books is also valued by readers.
On June 16, the signboard of "Xinhua Bookstore" was put up in Shanghai Jing 'an Central Business District. This seemingly ordinary event was called by the local media as "the revitalization sound played by the physical bookstore again". The rapid development of digital reading has reduced the living space of paper books and physical bookstores. Headlines containing the words "Bookstore Shrinking" and "Farewell to Bookstore" have appeared in newspapers in almost all cities. As a result, the opening of a Xinhua bookstore was endowed with some important significance of "recovery" and "revitalization".
All kinds of phenomena show that the situation and future of paper books are not as difficult as they seem. Readers still hold trust and expectation for paper books, and there is a relatively stable demand for paper books in the market.
Paper books are more interesting than e-books
With the continuous upgrading of the technology of computers, mobile phones and e-readers, the advertising language of many products particularly emphasizes that products have the feeling of paper reading. However, the machine is always a machine. Even though the display effect of the iPhone 4S and the new iPad is very close to the paper book, it is only the feeling of the eyes, and it is still difficult for the palm to replace the texture of paper. It can be seen that the reading experience brought by paper reading is still beyond the reach of machines. Therefore, the pursuit of paper reading experience has become a contrarian move in the digital wave from time to time. Readers who often read through computers, mobile phones and e-readers can better appreciate the advantages of paper reading.
On the Baidu.com, a netizen asked a question: "Who can summarize the advantages and disadvantages of paper books and e-books?" Netizen "Dream Firefly" replied: "Paper books are scribbled, comfortable and realistic to read, but not easy to carry and organize; E-books have the advantages of portability, low production cost, easy dissemination and large amount of information. Disadvantages include that information is easily lost and reading for a long time is harmful to the eyes. " This comparison may not be comprehensive, but it basically summarizes the basic feelings of ordinary readers about the two reading carriers.
E-books are easy to carry, delete and modify. On the one hand, they do bring a lot of convenience to reading, but on the other hand, they also dilute the sense of value of reading. Comparatively speaking, in addition to being more authentic in form, the natural cultural weight of paper books can also make readers feel the atmosphere and interest of reading. Therefore, someone once said, "Paper books are more interesting than e-books." This smell is not only the smell of books, but also the smell of culture.
In recent years, in order to promote readers to return to paper reading, many cities have slogan of "scholarly society" and "scholarly city", and even held interesting activities of "eating books" on World Book Day to appeal to readers to pay attention to paper reading.
Since the beginning of this year, jonathan franzen, a famous American writer who appeared on the cover of Time magazine, has repeatedly bombarded e-books. He has publicly expressed that he doesn't like reading with e-readers, fearing that one day electronic infringement may destroy the publishing industry and even his writing. Jonathan's worries reflect a general psychology in the literary, academic and publishing circles. In an exclusive interview with this newspaper, Wu Jun, a professor at Nanjing University, once talked about the influence of the digital age on creation and reading. In his view, digital reading and writing will change the literary form and then change the aesthetic standards. Therefore, he particularly emphasized the function and task of literary criticism. He said: "Batch.