Digital Vs. Physical
Photography | Analysis
In today's academic setting, there is a shift that is starting to occur. A shift away from the physical, bound tomes of knowledge of old; towards something with a battery, screen, and ability to access the knowledge of mankind—and yet we use it check Twitter and post selfies. There is a change from physical mediums, such as textbooks and notebooks; towards eTexts, and note-taking applications such as Evernote or Microsoft Word. But is that actually good for students, or the school, or either? Physical media may be more expensive and old, but it is more beneficial to the student because of its tangible qualities. I got the inspiration for this photo series and photojournalism as I was sitting in class one day. I looked around and noticed that almost everyone in the class had a device out: either a laptop, or a tablet, or a phone. I started wondering why it seems that people are starting to favor the digital mediums now, instead of the physical versions; And if there was an effect of some kind from favoring digital over physical or vice versa. So I decided that it would be an interesting challenge to try and capture that clash between Digital and Physical Medium in photographs and to try to tell a story between them. |
"If books are merely information that can be migrated from one medium to another without loss, then it is perfectly acceptable to microfilm or digitize and then discard the original artifact...[except] the format and the medium are deemed to have historical and intellectual value in themselves" — Robert Bee, Importance of Preserving Paper-Based Artifacts in a Digital Age
|
A physical medium is anything that can touched, that can felt that is tangible: an old, favorite book bound in leather, a photo print of your lover, or an original pressing of Sgt. Pepper's. There is a certain quality and feeling to being able to actually physically grasp something. As students in today's Digital Age, we are often presented with a choice: eBook or Textbook; and according to a study done by University of Washington, and talked about by Michael Rosenwald in the Washington Post, students prefer physical textbooks, and books in general, to their digital counterpart. According to Student Monitor research done in Fall 2014, published by the Washington Post, when buying around five textbooks (costing on average $338 total), 87% of those five textbooks were in print, while only 9% were eBooks. Naomi Baron, an American Linguist who studies Digital Communication and wrote: Words Onscreen: The Fate of Reading in a Digital World, was interviewed by Rosenwald for the Post's article "Why Digital Natives Prefer Reading in Print. Yes, You Read That Right", talks about how Digital Natives still prefer print over digital for various reasons, but a standout one is being able to create a mental roadmap of where information is located. Speaking from personal experience, and from talking to my peers, it was a general consensus that the feeling of turning the page, of being able to think "the information I needed was in the last few pages, on the page with the dogeared corner, with the pink highlighter smudge in the margin" was beneficial to recalling the sought after information.
An interesting new wrinkle to textbooks, is when they contain an online access component. This component adds to an already high potential of cost, forcing you to buy new. You could buy the book used, but the online access code, in general, costs as much as the textbook with the code. |
For a different viewpoint, one could look from the side of the Institution and book Publishers are a business, and are in the business of making money—and eBooks offer them a cheaper way to make more. In 2008 for every dollar, 21.6 goes towards the bookstore and their overheads, 1 cent for shipping costs, 15.4 cents went towards marketing of the book, 11.7 cents went to the authors, 32.2 cents went to: paper,printing, and publishers' employee wages; and for those playing along at home, that's 18.1 cents of profit per dollar (All this figures are from US News article, citing the National Association of College Stores) so for a $100 textbook, the Publisher makes around $18. According to the U.S. Labor Department, textbooks went up 8% between July 2011 and July 2012, while the prices for all goods only went up 1% in that same time period. So there is most likely some price gouging by the Publishers, because they really do not have that much of competition. If you substitute an eBook for a printed copy at the same price (and usually there is not a huge price difference between digital and printed for textbooks), the Publisher will make even more because of the elimination of printing, paper, and shipping costs. The Institution also desires digital format because it believes that digital formats will lower the costs for them. But, what may be good for the Institution cost wise may not be good for the students learning.
Digital Medium. The Last Frontier...wait, that was Star Trek. As digital natives get older, they keep pushing what can be done with computers, and it is not a big step to guess that they would want to read and learn digitally too, since they spent a lot of time on their devices already. Digital does have its advantages: one device can store multiple books and readings, it can access the Internet aka the knowledge of all mankind, and can be used for applications to make documents, spreadsheets, and presentations.
Digital Medium. The Last Frontier...wait, that was Star Trek. As digital natives get older, they keep pushing what can be done with computers, and it is not a big step to guess that they would want to read and learn digitally too, since they spent a lot of time on their devices already. Digital does have its advantages: one device can store multiple books and readings, it can access the Internet aka the knowledge of all mankind, and can be used for applications to make documents, spreadsheets, and presentations.
A useful tool, that some instructors hate, is Wikipedia. It is useful to supplement your existing knowledge of a topic, or if you do not understand a topic or idea fully then Wikipedia can help you solidify your knowledge base. Even though Wikipedia can be edited by anyone, only the truly loyal and helpful remain there for long and well, the bots. Simonite talks about how this digital platform has become so popular, and yet not that many editors remain because of impersonal welcome that many newcomers get upon joining in his article The Decline of Wikipedia. Wikipedia does not have an article for everything though, because of the lack of new editors.
"The Wikipedians remind me of the crusty old desk guy who knows the style guide backwards [These old guys being the established editors]. Where are the eager cub reporters [The cub reporters being the newcomers]? You don’t get the crusty old desk guy out at three in the morning…That’s for the new guy…At Wikipedia we don’t have a sufficient influx of cub reporters.”—Sue Gardner, The Decline of Wikipedia
Meaning that without more new people, the editors that have been there for a while will not be able to cover everything, and the goal of collecting all of human knowledge will be impossible. For the common user, Wikipedia seems like a Godsend of information and learning—but for those in the trenches of Wikipedia trying to get everything together behind the scenes for the rest of us, it can be war.
The digital natives believe that they can multitask and do two or three things with complete concentration at once, which defies psychologists saying that the brain can only truly focus on one thing at a time. The PBS Frontline documentary Digital Nation takes a look at how students are effected by technology in the classroom. A study that was shown on the documentary is a study at Stanford by Clifford Nass looks at the effect of multitasking on the brain, and the results showed that they did poorly at their multitasking tasks. So trying to look at your phone, while taking notes, and checking Facebook just does not work. The documentary looked at MIT students, who are generally thought of to be smart; they heard the data about multitasking and how it does not really work, but they believe that it does not apply to them because they can do it and deny that it affects them.
"This article examines the impact of a modern digital edition of the Alliterative Morte Arthure on editorial rationale, arguing that a change in physical context entails a deep change in the analytical context within which the poem is perceived. More precisely, I will illustrate the ‘dynamic’ potential of a digital edition, which allows an editor or reader to accommodate multiple reading texts reflecting different degrees of editorial certainty, and thus constitutes a significant advance compared to more traditional methods of presentation. Ultimately the possibility of contemplating such plural, open-ended and provisional possibilities within the context of a digital edition of the Morte Arthure widens the range of editorial and interpretive interaction with the text itself." —John Ivor Carlson, Translating the Alliterative Morte Arthure into a Digital Medium: The Influence of Physical Context on Editorial Theory
This quote from Carlson, talks about how the easy of digital editing lends itself to allowing texts to become living things. Before digital, a text had to be completely reprinted if there was an addition or a different editor interrupted the work differently. By allowing the work to be a living thing, the end reader gains more by being allowed to see different takes on a text. The notes taken on devices are always legible, and can easily shared. A big disadvantage of digital devices is also one of its advantages: it can do so many things and can access so much—which makes it easier to get distracted. Even though you may have whipped out your device to take notes on or read along a text; dollars to doughnuts a notification will pop up and you will become distracted by Facebook or other social media—or you'll get bored and play a game.
To me, it makes sense to type a paper on my computer: I have bad handwriting, I can type faster than I write, and would not have to start over from scratch if I changed my mind while writing. But, I believe that taking notes on a device in class is not as effective as taking notes by hand—the physical motion of moving my hand and putting ink to paper makes it seem more real and poignant to me. In a study conducted by Pam Mueller and Danial Oppenheimer looking at the advantages of writing notes over typing, they found that when students took notes on a laptop that they typed out the profesors speech verbatium—they merely heard words and typed them out, without synthesizing and making the notes their own. In the same study, the authors concluded that laptops may be doing more harm than good in the classroom, and may in fact be causing the students taking notes on a laptop to do worse than their handwriting peers. This bolsters the advantages of physical medium over digital in the classroom.
"The Medium is the Message." McLuhan may have been onto something back in the day. The medium in which you deliver your content matters and speaks to who the audience is, and to who the argument you are making is for. If you post something on the Internet, it is there for public consumption. This photo essay is out there for whoever wants to see it, and read it. It is not behind a closed door, it is not meant to be. If I only wanted a certain type of person to view it, I would pay for an installation and only those truly interested in it would go and consume it. But I chose this format and medium because of the ease of access for me, because I already had both a photo storage site and a tweakable website made; cost is also another factor in that to have my photos professionally printed, mated, framed, lit, and installed would cost thousands of dollars.
What I was afraid of with this project, was that it would not be seen as scholarly, and would not be taken seriously; but how is photography as a medium any less scholarly than a video, or a PowerPoint. Photography has the ability to affect people, topics, and events that words cannot; as demonstrated by William Randolf Hearst: "You furnish the pictures, I'll furnish the war." It was Ansel Adam's who said "Photography, as a powerful medium of expression and communications, offers an infinite variety of perception, interpretation, and execution." By using photos, I give the reader something to think about and engage with by allowing them to form their thoughts—which by giving them another avenue into the topic gets the readers mind involved and interested in the topic. My goal and thought to myself as I was creating this was that if I removed the words, would my message still be there, would it still exist and make sense; "One advantage of photography is that it's visual and can transcend language."—Lisa Kristine
Yra van Dijk states that: "Digital literature emphasizes its own medium, and it brings to the foreground the graphic, material aspects of a language." Because the piece is digital, the reader can analyze the language itself that is employed, and get a sense of a world through it. Also I believe it hints at that a digital one, the look of the language is being judged: the font choice, the formatting, how the words are presented themselves. In Alex Gillespie's "The Message of the Medium" he talks about how the evolution of the dissemination of knowledge has brought us to now, and how "The digitisation [sic] of knowledge, now means that it is often more expensive to stop the distribution of knowledge than to allow it." The doors of knowledge have been flung open for all to come in and enjoy if you want.
What I was afraid of with this project, was that it would not be seen as scholarly, and would not be taken seriously; but how is photography as a medium any less scholarly than a video, or a PowerPoint. Photography has the ability to affect people, topics, and events that words cannot; as demonstrated by William Randolf Hearst: "You furnish the pictures, I'll furnish the war." It was Ansel Adam's who said "Photography, as a powerful medium of expression and communications, offers an infinite variety of perception, interpretation, and execution." By using photos, I give the reader something to think about and engage with by allowing them to form their thoughts—which by giving them another avenue into the topic gets the readers mind involved and interested in the topic. My goal and thought to myself as I was creating this was that if I removed the words, would my message still be there, would it still exist and make sense; "One advantage of photography is that it's visual and can transcend language."—Lisa Kristine
Yra van Dijk states that: "Digital literature emphasizes its own medium, and it brings to the foreground the graphic, material aspects of a language." Because the piece is digital, the reader can analyze the language itself that is employed, and get a sense of a world through it. Also I believe it hints at that a digital one, the look of the language is being judged: the font choice, the formatting, how the words are presented themselves. In Alex Gillespie's "The Message of the Medium" he talks about how the evolution of the dissemination of knowledge has brought us to now, and how "The digitisation [sic] of knowledge, now means that it is often more expensive to stop the distribution of knowledge than to allow it." The doors of knowledge have been flung open for all to come in and enjoy if you want.
The digital world is here to stay. It has become a part of us and the world would crumble if we tried to pull the plug right now. Some have been born into it, such as the Digital Natives growing up now. But even then, the Digital Natives still enjoy a real book, even though "These are people who shouldn't even remember to smell a book", as so aptly put by Naomi Baron. The physical format has its advantages and disadvantages, as does the digital counterpart, but the research and studies have shown that physical mediums are more productive and conducive to academic aspects, and reading in general.
Photographer: Steve Tonar
Model: Nick Stiebris
Location: UofM Twin Cities, Walter Library
Model: Nick Stiebris
Location: UofM Twin Cities, Walter Library
All Photos used on this page are Copyrighted by Steven Tonar
Sources
Bee, Robert. "The Importance of Preserving Paper‐Based Artifacts in a Digital Age." LIBR QUART The Library Quarterly: 179-94. Print.
"Digital Nation." Frontline. PBS. 1 Feb. 2010. Television.
Gillespie, Alex. "The Message of the Medium: Distributing Academic Knowledge in the Digital Age." Europe’s Journal of Psychology EJOP (2010): 5. Print.
Kurtzleben, Danielle. "How Your Textbook Dollars Are Divvied Up." U.S. News. U.S. News, 28 Aug. 2012. Web. 14 Dec. 2015.
McLuhan, Marshall. "The Medium Is the Message." Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. McGraw-Hill, 1964. Print.
Mueller, P. A., and D. M. Oppenheimer. "The Pen Is Mightier Than the Keyboard: Advantages of Longhand Over Laptop Note Taking." Psychological Science (2014): 1159-168. Print.
Rosenwald, Michael. "Why Digital Natives Prefer Reading in Print. Yes, You Read That Right." Washington Post. The Washington Post, 22 Feb. 2015. Web. 15 Dec. 2015.
Simonite, Tom. "The Decline of Wikipedia: Even As More People Than Ever Rely on It, Fewer People Create It | MIT Technology Review." MIT Technology Review. 22 Oct. 2013. Web. 14 Dec. 2015.
van Dijk, Yra. "A Performance of Reality. Handwriting and Paper in Digital Literature." Journal of Dutch Literature 2.2 (2011): 66. Journal of Dutch Literature. Web. 13 Dec. 2015.
Selected Quotes from: Ansel Adams, Naomi Baron, and Lisa Kristine
"Digital Nation." Frontline. PBS. 1 Feb. 2010. Television.
Gillespie, Alex. "The Message of the Medium: Distributing Academic Knowledge in the Digital Age." Europe’s Journal of Psychology EJOP (2010): 5. Print.
Kurtzleben, Danielle. "How Your Textbook Dollars Are Divvied Up." U.S. News. U.S. News, 28 Aug. 2012. Web. 14 Dec. 2015.
McLuhan, Marshall. "The Medium Is the Message." Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. McGraw-Hill, 1964. Print.
Mueller, P. A., and D. M. Oppenheimer. "The Pen Is Mightier Than the Keyboard: Advantages of Longhand Over Laptop Note Taking." Psychological Science (2014): 1159-168. Print.
Rosenwald, Michael. "Why Digital Natives Prefer Reading in Print. Yes, You Read That Right." Washington Post. The Washington Post, 22 Feb. 2015. Web. 15 Dec. 2015.
Simonite, Tom. "The Decline of Wikipedia: Even As More People Than Ever Rely on It, Fewer People Create It | MIT Technology Review." MIT Technology Review. 22 Oct. 2013. Web. 14 Dec. 2015.
van Dijk, Yra. "A Performance of Reality. Handwriting and Paper in Digital Literature." Journal of Dutch Literature 2.2 (2011): 66. Journal of Dutch Literature. Web. 13 Dec. 2015.
Selected Quotes from: Ansel Adams, Naomi Baron, and Lisa Kristine