By: danny bloom

danny bloom — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 05:58:30 +0000

thorn, humour helps here. Since I guest blogged this here i had a heart attack on Nov. 6, the Grim Reaper came calling but he said he would give me a reprieve for now, so I spent six days in the local ICU at the hospital near my home and the doc put a stent in my cholesteral-clogged arteries and I am good to go now, but I am not sure for how long. Whether we call this new kind of “reading” we do on screens as “screening” (some people like it, some people hate it) or “screading” (many people have suggested this term to me, although I don’t like it so much, esp in the past tense, screaded?) and what I think will happen, which was the purpose of this guest blog in the first place, is that at some point along the highway, in the future, some savvy editor or blogger (not me!) or some focus group or some nerd in California will come up with a new term for what we do on screens when we read, since we do so much more than just read when we read on screens, and whatever that new term will be, it will happen naturally and organically, by itself, on its own time, when the time is right and if the culture feels it wants or needs a new word. For now, “reading” does just fine, I agree. But I feel some new word or term might be coined in the future, say 2015 or 2045, and I wonder what that word might be. Could be “screening”. In fact, the Boston Globe ran a story on June 19 titled or headlined “I screen, you screen, we all screen”, written by columnist Alex Beam there, and he interviewed Dr Anne Mangen and Jakob Nielsen and William Powers about this very idea. I know you weren’t being snarky, although most comments to me on my own blog about this are snarky, 98 percent of my email is negative and ornery and tells me to go to hell……maybe that’s what caused my heart attack? I told the Grim Reaper to come back in 2032. he said he would think about it.

By: thorn

thorn — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 20:02:12 +0000

thanks for the grin! i meant to be funny but sounded snarky (again, oh woe). and i meant ‘codex’. bad typing is my middle and last name..

By: eoinpurcell

eoinpurcell — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 17:20:19 +0000

By: thorn

thorn — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 16:34:11 +0000

you know, people didn’t only used to read on scrolls prior to the codes. they also used to scroll on scrolls. perhaps you could come up with a new word for ‘scrolling’ on a screen, while you’re at it.

Comments on: A New Word For Reading (On Screens)

By: danny bloom

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By: eoinpurcell

By: thorn