Do Children's E-Books Ruin Reading?

An anonymous reader writes "A fierce argument has begun over whether children are actually 'reading' new e-books or simply 'watching' them. As publishers pump increasing levels of interactivity into e-books, the New York Times and others argue that these highly-interactive, popular titles are ruining the purpose of reading. The NYT also worries that new e-book titles could distract kids from the tougher task of actually concentrating on literature: '[W]hat will become of the readers we've been: quiet, thoughtful, patient, abstracted, in a world where interactive can be too tempting to ignore?' Others, like Gizmodo, defend these new e-books, pointing at titles like Alice for the iPad, of which they blabber, 'For the first time in my life, I'm blown away by an interactive book design.' But, the NYT counters, 'What I really love [about traditional books] is their inertness. No matter how I shake Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, mushrooms don't tumble out of the upper margin, unlike the Alice for the iPad.'"

Comments

The equation of truth

[Anonymous Coward]

Children + new technology = loss of childhood dreams

Don't we all know this from episode I?

Only a matter of time

[qpawn]

Next thing you know, they'll start making movies out of these books. Gasp!

Re:Non-issue

[JamesP]

Books for wizard kids (Harry Potter) have things that speak and move for themselves and the kids seem to do just fine.

Re:Ruining the purpose of reading? ABSOLUTELY!

[Yvan256]

Yah, just like computers have been ruining writing these past couple of decades.

Tell me about it. Some people don't even know what paragraphs are anymore.

What happened to reading?

[AnAdventurer]

If I want interactive "reading", I'll use the internet and post a inflammatory remark at slashdot.