Revisiting the future of reading
Maribeth Back · 2012
Reading is part of how we understand the world, how we share knowledge, how we play, and even how we think. Although reading text is the dominant form of reading, most of the text we read letters, numbers, words, and sentences is surrounded by illustrations, photographs, and other kinds of symbols that we include as we read. As dynamic displays migrate into the real world at many scales, whether personal devices, handhelds, or large screens in both interior and exterior spaces, opportunities for reading migrate as well. As has happened continually throughout the history of reading, new technologies, physical forms and social patterns create new genres, which themselves may then combine or collide to morph into something new.