Group items tagged

"Since at least the 1990s, when personal computers first became commonplace, public policy experts have worried the ill effects of a Digital Divide. That is, a learning, socialization and economic gap across socio-economic status, race and gender caused by unequal access to computing resources."

The author talks about how using electronic devices can alter our accustomed behaviors, such as mistakenly swiping a finger when reading a printed newspaper expecting it to turn the page the same as if it were on a tablet. He then carries this over into an argument that the brain changes that cause this hasten the adoption rate for new technologies. Ultimately I disagree with this as it's only becoming habituated to an interface, and not something intrinsic with the medium itself.

An interesting article that may spell bad news for makers of e-readers and particular E Ink. I would tend to agree with the assessment that dedicate e-readers are transition devices--much the same as electronic PDA's have been almost entirely replaced by smartphones. However, I would go further and say it's a format issue; people would tend to devices that are multifunction more often than one dedicated to a single purpose.