Delightful research from Austria
Apr. 18th, 2026 11:25 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
walkitouthttps://uscholar.univie.ac.at/detail/o:1635308.pdf
It’s a few years old and in English.
“However, even though digital readers and multi-format users seem to be more diverse in their reading practice than print readers, the additional digital reading medium does not seem to be the reason for this diversification, but rather a tool utilized by a specific group of readers with pre-existing differences from print readers.”
This is one of the most interesting analyses of reading that I have ever read. I was raised JW, which is an extremely reading-intensive religious organization that produces its own reading material at scale for both in-group consumption and as part of their extensive efforts to recruit new members. Some years ago, they modified their signage to direct to their website, and zoom-attending funerals for JW family members means I’ve seen the insides of Kingdom Halls and usage of tablets to consume their literature in their programs. They have been at the forefront of adopting technology for their evangelical work for their century plus of existence and have been quite proud of it, so this is not particularly surprising, altho it was immediately preceded by a strong antipathy to the internet as a locus for people to lose their religion.
I have assumed that in general other religions have been slow to switch to e-books for consuming religious publications, mostly because that’s how it has been for tech and church in general. I’m wondering when that will happen? I’ve been using Bible Gateway for, as Priestess would say, “Yoinks”, because it let me get rid of a shelf of translations and only keep around one Moffatt’s for nostalgia/affection reasons, an NRSV, a JPS Tanakh, [and the Ahmed Ali Quran, apologies for initially forgetting to include and also still so sad at the lack of an ebook version], and a JW interlinear because it belonged to my grandmother. (I’ve mostly given up arguing with people about anything scripture related, but I like to have the ammo available in case of need.) If I’m sitting here thinking I could probably get rid of what’s left on the shelf, perhaps its time for all the other religions to be switching to e-books. . .
More quotes!
“ The assumption that print readers, in particular, would value aspects such as participation in cultural life or social recognition more than other readers is not con rmed and does not underlie the reading media decision. In contrast, the results show that multi-format users seem to have a stronger conscious reading motivation than the other two groups, while print and digital readers might not be aware of why they are reading a book. The reason could be that multi-format users have to re ect on which reading medium they use for a specific book and what the use of a specific reading medium implies for the reading experience.”
The first really bad bit of analysis: “ Only erotic novels are rather preferred to be read digitally, most probably because of the greater anonymity when buying (i.e., ordering or downloading) and reading them.” I’m not saying that the anonymity is irrelevant, but the real issue is finding and acquiring — a lot of this stuff does not (yet) exist in print format.
This is really on point when it comes to attacking e-books on the basis of DRM and then complaining about reduction in access and the luxury of having the time and attention to read.
“the results are clear and revealing regarding reading places and
situations.“Reading on the go is not new”, said Balling et al. (2019, p. 198).
However, our findings suggest that it is more prevalent than before.”
And
“digital readers reported reading in more diverse places since they started reading digitally,
suggesting that digital reading changed their reading practice.”
If you sincerely want long form reading to compete with social media, and you sincerely want people who are very busy to still have time to read, then making e-reading “not count” is literally the worst position to take.
So I am back to: values driven positions that are at odds with each other within the same person. Pro-reading folks being anti-ebook. Pro-affordability folks being anti-cheap-option. Pointing out the luxury of time, and then blocking the mechanism by which bits of time can add up to enough time to read a book.
To be fair, I think what’s actually going on in the anti-e-book crowd is ludicrously simple. Everyone who still makes more money off each p-book sold, and whose books are not available in e-book form except on pirate websites is obviously motivated to push p-books over e-books. But one does have to wonder if that’s all of the people involved in this debate, because that is super implausible to me.
In recent weeks, PP on FF has talked about and then acquired a large format e-reader that you can write on with a stylus. He put a lot of thought into it, and I’ll be interested in how much use he makes of it over time. One of the things that works poorly in e-form on many devices is note-taking. I usually resolve it by creating a Note or coming over here and liveblogging, but many of those entries are Private (Just You) because while I’m happy to stream of conscience (ha ha) on this topic, I don’t always feel comfortable sharing my most vicious criticisms of something I’m reading or thinking about with randos parachuting in from google. I often change my mind and almost always tone it down within a few days at most.
It’s a few years old and in English.
“However, even though digital readers and multi-format users seem to be more diverse in their reading practice than print readers, the additional digital reading medium does not seem to be the reason for this diversification, but rather a tool utilized by a specific group of readers with pre-existing differences from print readers.”
This is one of the most interesting analyses of reading that I have ever read. I was raised JW, which is an extremely reading-intensive religious organization that produces its own reading material at scale for both in-group consumption and as part of their extensive efforts to recruit new members. Some years ago, they modified their signage to direct to their website, and zoom-attending funerals for JW family members means I’ve seen the insides of Kingdom Halls and usage of tablets to consume their literature in their programs. They have been at the forefront of adopting technology for their evangelical work for their century plus of existence and have been quite proud of it, so this is not particularly surprising, altho it was immediately preceded by a strong antipathy to the internet as a locus for people to lose their religion.
I have assumed that in general other religions have been slow to switch to e-books for consuming religious publications, mostly because that’s how it has been for tech and church in general. I’m wondering when that will happen? I’ve been using Bible Gateway for, as Priestess would say, “Yoinks”, because it let me get rid of a shelf of translations and only keep around one Moffatt’s for nostalgia/affection reasons, an NRSV, a JPS Tanakh, [and the Ahmed Ali Quran, apologies for initially forgetting to include and also still so sad at the lack of an ebook version], and a JW interlinear because it belonged to my grandmother. (I’ve mostly given up arguing with people about anything scripture related, but I like to have the ammo available in case of need.) If I’m sitting here thinking I could probably get rid of what’s left on the shelf, perhaps its time for all the other religions to be switching to e-books. . .
More quotes!
“ The assumption that print readers, in particular, would value aspects such as participation in cultural life or social recognition more than other readers is not con rmed and does not underlie the reading media decision. In contrast, the results show that multi-format users seem to have a stronger conscious reading motivation than the other two groups, while print and digital readers might not be aware of why they are reading a book. The reason could be that multi-format users have to re ect on which reading medium they use for a specific book and what the use of a specific reading medium implies for the reading experience.”
The first really bad bit of analysis: “ Only erotic novels are rather preferred to be read digitally, most probably because of the greater anonymity when buying (i.e., ordering or downloading) and reading them.” I’m not saying that the anonymity is irrelevant, but the real issue is finding and acquiring — a lot of this stuff does not (yet) exist in print format.
This is really on point when it comes to attacking e-books on the basis of DRM and then complaining about reduction in access and the luxury of having the time and attention to read.
“the results are clear and revealing regarding reading places and
situations.“Reading on the go is not new”, said Balling et al. (2019, p. 198).
However, our findings suggest that it is more prevalent than before.”
And
“digital readers reported reading in more diverse places since they started reading digitally,
suggesting that digital reading changed their reading practice.”
If you sincerely want long form reading to compete with social media, and you sincerely want people who are very busy to still have time to read, then making e-reading “not count” is literally the worst position to take.
So I am back to: values driven positions that are at odds with each other within the same person. Pro-reading folks being anti-ebook. Pro-affordability folks being anti-cheap-option. Pointing out the luxury of time, and then blocking the mechanism by which bits of time can add up to enough time to read a book.
To be fair, I think what’s actually going on in the anti-e-book crowd is ludicrously simple. Everyone who still makes more money off each p-book sold, and whose books are not available in e-book form except on pirate websites is obviously motivated to push p-books over e-books. But one does have to wonder if that’s all of the people involved in this debate, because that is super implausible to me.
In recent weeks, PP on FF has talked about and then acquired a large format e-reader that you can write on with a stylus. He put a lot of thought into it, and I’ll be interested in how much use he makes of it over time. One of the things that works poorly in e-form on many devices is note-taking. I usually resolve it by creating a Note or coming over here and liveblogging, but many of those entries are Private (Just You) because while I’m happy to stream of conscience (ha ha) on this topic, I don’t always feel comfortable sharing my most vicious criticisms of something I’m reading or thinking about with randos parachuting in from google. I often change my mind and almost always tone it down within a few days at most.