Hypertext fiction reading: haptics and immersion

Anne Mangen
2008 Journal of Research in Reading  
Reading is a multi-sensory activity, entailing perceptual, cognitive and motor interactions with whatever is being read. With digital technology, reading manifests itself as being extensively multi-sensory -both in more explicit and more complex ways than ever before. In different ways from traditional reading technologies such as the codex, digital technology illustrates how the act of reading is intimately connected with and intricately dependent on the fact that we are both body and mind -a
more » ... act carrying important implications for even such an apparently intellectual activity as reading, whether recreational, educational or occupational. This article addresses some important and hitherto neglected issues concerning digital reading, with special emphasis on the vital role of our bodies, and in particular our fingers and hands, for the immersive fiction reading experience. Reading with new technologies The ways we read are constantly being moulded by whatever technological innovations, devices and platforms come around. The print book is presently being challenged by the computer and, perhaps in particular, the e-book. Digital technology also pervades our surroundings -eloquently suggested by expressions such as ubiquitous and invisible technology, and pervasive computing. Laptops and e-books are beginning to replace print textbooks in schools. More and more of our daily reading is reading from screens, or from some version of electronic reading tablets or mobile technology, rather than reading from print. This raises a number of important research questions concerning digital (screen) reading compared with print reading -no doubt pedagogically, but also generically: how does digital technology change the ways we read? Theorists across disciplinary boundaries largely agree that we read differently when reading digital texts, compared with when reading print. Moreover, not only is our screen reading distinctly different from print reading, but our reading modes and habits in general are changing due to steadily increasing exposure to digital texts (
doi:10.1111/j.1467-9817.2008.00380.x fatcat:lk63kxdwfjbszmk6as54g63qim