Week 7 Response - To Each Their Own

It is a given fact that students in grad school will have to read course materials that are online. Even assignments are nowadays submitted digitally! As a grad student, there has been the occasional research where the information that I am seeking to write for a paper, can only be found from a book that must be retrieved from the library stacks. This may sound silly, but I do enjoy it when research requires me to venture out in search of a physical book, because that to me specifies the rarity of the material and information you are trying to seek. Simply put: some things are just better when it’s in book rather than online, and regardless of ongoing arguments, starring at a screen all day can’t be good for our health. Yes, we do live in an age where a lot of information is and has been made available digitally, but not everything can be made accessible online because that is simply an impossible utopian ideal. There will always be times where we depend upon or must search for the physical material. I mean what are archives for?

Personally, I choose to read only class materials on my laptop whilst purchasing physical prints that I read in my day-to-day life, such as fiction novels, comic books, magazines and so forth. I make it a mission to separate my personal life from my school life because at the end of the day, I just want to unwind, turn my brain off and turn my eyes away from the computer screen, after having stared at it for several hours.

Furthermore, I personally prefer purchasing physical books and comics that I read for fun, as I find it easier to collect them. Not to mention, I like the idea of having my own personal library that reflects the things I like to read. While today’s younger generation will experience using iPads and tablets in elementary schools, I grew up in a time where floppy disks were still in use – Google it if you don’t know what that is! - and every class needed textbooks to instruct children. So it's only natural that I should go owning physical books in my everyday life.

But overall, how and why we choose to read is a matter of personal preference. No one is alike. That’s the beauty of it. 

- Raquel

Image source:

Google Images. (2016). Charlie Brown Linus Library. Retrieved from https://aphs-library.wikispaces.com/file/view/Charlie%20Brown%20Linus%20Library.png/462050464/302x241/Charlie%20Brown%20Linus%20Library.png