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

Non-issue

[DavidR1991]

Interactive books have been around for decades - books with sliding tabs, sound effects when you press little buttons - those kinds of things. So I don't think e-books along the lines of that Alice one are a problem at all

What we should be concerned about is interactivity replacing the text rather than augmenting it. That's when it's a problem

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.

The equation of truth

[Anonymous Coward]

Children + new technology = loss of childhood dreams

Don't we all know this from episode I?

Re:The equation of truth

[AnonymousClown]

Children + new technology = loss of childhood dreams

That's an interesting point.

Consider this, when you see an image of a character, you're seeing what someone else's imagination came up with on how it looks. For example, how many of you see a movie adaptation of a book only to have them cast an actor that looks nothing like you imagined it?

With picture books or multimedia or whatever, the authors are replacing the child's imagination with their own. The child may have something better or something they like more or...I don't know.

I think the picture books or any multimedia system is replacing a child's imagination - it's not active.

That's why books to movies usually suck: our imaginations are usually better than what Hollywood can come up with - Starship Troopers for one.

I'm not creative enough on how to explain it further.