Printed Media
Ugh paper websites…
- Missing features: no hyperlinks, interactive content, media playback
- they’re heavy; digital media do not have weight
- they’re made of carbon
- they’re expensive to print
- they can’t be updated over time
Some printed books could REALLY use hyperlinks. Especially when the information presented is not linear in nature (textbooks, guides, journals). I have seen many books where internal references are done without even mentioning page number (WTH!).
I’ve been asking for the hyperlink feature forever but I don’t think its coming anytime soon. 😞
Digital Media
Ugh internet documents…
- they can’t be used without 21st century infrastructure.
- flipping through and browsing pages is slow and tedious. On the other hand, I can flip through literally hundreds of paper pages in a second.
- Missing features: scribbling and tearing. Tearing paper and scribbling on it is possible. It is very easy. Sometimes this feature is super useful.
- difficult to read for long durations of time; human eyes get tired and irritated when looking directly into a light source for long-ish times. Unfortunately, that’s the only way to consume digital media these days. Printed books do not have this problem.
I’ve been waiting forever for affordable, usable reflextive displays but I don’t think I can buy one anytime soon. 😞
On E-readers
Have their purpose and are very good for certain use cases. But also, inherits disadvantages from both other mediums.
In conclusion
As a written media consumer, paper books with hyperlinks for references would be awesome. Until that’s possible, if all our textbooks were websites and we had reflective displays on our devices, that can be acceptable too. Somebody make it happen. Thank you very much.