Has technology changed the way we read?

The Shallows: How the Internet is Changing the Way We Think, Read and Remember by Nicholas Carr
This is the book I would recommend for anyone interested in a serious study of this subject.

Not me - I still like an old-fashioned book.

No – I still start at the beginning and stop at the end.

I never worry about the effect on children of technology. All the children I know love being told stories – in the oral tradition, being read to, watching drama (telly and DVDs, theatre), interactive stories on computers. What's not to like?

And, no, I don't read in a different way either. I just read stuff. More choice is more easily available than ever before in my life (and I had access to the Bodleian for many years). So again, what's not to like?

No, I don't think so. Or not in any significant way. I do have a Kindle which is excellent for travelling as it saves so much space, (and I do love the facility for touching an obscure word and its definition appearing on the screen) but it hasn't stopped me from reading print based texts. I tend to read six or seven books at a time, dipping in and out, depending on the time of day or my mood or how tired I am.

I've been amazed at how attractive some of the books for children can be on e media. Small grandson has The Three Little Pigs on the iPad which is presented in a variety of ways. He can listen to the story, control the pace, blow the house down and make the characters speak. Magic.

I not got kindle yet but do seem stuck in rut with books! May change.

My main worry is children spend too much time playing computer games etc and don't interact enough face to face but that applies to adults too most my friends text instead of phoning I am guilty too!

I think the internet has totally changed the way I deal with non-fiction and information. No change really to fiction apart from not reading the end of a story early on Kindle. The Nicholas Carr book talks about how using the internet means we research things differently, using hypertext, links etc. and what comes across is how changing the way our brain works can be positive. There is some interesting stuff on how people who have had a stroke use different parts of the brain and people who have become blind use that part of the brain which was used for sight for other senses.
Not really sure what the original question means in relation to children's fiction though. And no I don't worry. My seven year old GD was worried about why a toy had stopped working after the battery had been changed. She told my SiL that she had looked on the internet, found a YouTube video and solved the problem without his help.

Mamie, I've just ordered it. On Kindle!

It is very readable too MiceElf. I went back and read the blurb and remembered all the bits about how clocks changed the way we think, maps made us understand the world differently; books made us able to concentrate for longer. I think if we didn't have this facility to change to make use of new technologies then we would have died out a long time ago.

MiceElf - Your post may have converted me. I have a love of real books that goes back a long way and have an aversion to Kindle because it has no feel, no paper, no printed word, no smell and can't sit on a bookshelf. I'm now thinking that the space saving aspect of a Kindle can only be an advantage. The idea of immediately being provided with the definition of a word has hooked me. As for the Three Little Pigs, how marvellous. Hmm, when's my birthday? A Kindle may be on the list this time.

Nonnananna, the other reason for acquiring a Kindle is that my husband says that he agrees with me that books are living things since they have the ability to reproduce themselves and increase and multiply. There comes a point where shelf and floor space just run out.

If you do get one and you have little ones, the publishers who make the Three Little Pigs are called Nosey Crow. Everything they do is of an excellent standard and encourages real engagement with the text.

It's horses for courses. Novels that are all text are perfect on Kindle, or any other eReader. Beautiful pop-up childrens' books will never gain anything by being on an eReader, nor books full of photos and amazing illustrations, or those which are exquisitely bound. The books I read in bed, take on holiday or travel with, are ideally kept on the Kindle and save so much space and weight.

I see lots of benefits for children in the technology around them, but see plenty of evidence of them abandoning technology to play dens under the table or hide and seek. They can choose, and if we see signs of them being too engrossed in the TV, Wii, X-Box or iPad, we can tell them it's time to stop for now. Enough is enough.