Digital listening versus digital reading
While looking at a book on my desk a colleague said “I thought you would be using Amazon’s new Kindle”. I said it wasn’t for me, and I can’t see myself ever reading a book digitally. We talked a bit about the experience and how it’s different from music online and I came up with an analogy that I think fits.
With music it’s difficult to experience a concert digitally; it’s an experience, and a long experience at that. Listening to songs works, but I can’t see digital concerts replacing the real thing. With reading I think it’s the same. Articles are the singles of literature, reading online works, short bursts good experience. Books are like a concert, longer sustained experience where digital isn’t as good as the real thing.
I know I’ve blogged about digital reading before and I’ve strongly felt the Kindle wouldn’t really take off, despite strong sales data, I’m happy that I’ve found myself an analogy that makes me feel better about my instincts on the medium.
