Web reading perceptions
A few weeks ago I was talking with a few friends and subject of You Tube video came up, along with the fact that I watch a LOT of them. In this discussion I referenced specifically that a thirty minute documentary of the Stanford Prison experiment, conducted and filmed in 1971, is available on YouTube in three installments. My friend Jeff snorted and said, “I don’t have time to waste in front of the computer.” Beyond that fact that, from a time management perspective this simply isn’t true (he does choose to spend a few hours a week sipping whiskey and listening vintage country music LPs) it also was another example of an attitude I see a lot in both my professional as well as personal life: that serious things don’t happen on the internet.
A recent study conducted by Licht and Martin at Iowa State University and published in the Journal of Applied Communications looked at how corn farmers use media. When asked about web-based sources, one focus-group subject said, “You don’t have time to play around with the computer to see what’s going on.” Similar sentiments were expressed in a survey of Michigan Dairy Farmers conducted by my office in 2006. One farmer wrote in the margins of his (no gender pro-noun bias here, I just checked the form and the respondent identified as male) survey, “I don’t have time to read on the computer. My reading is done in print- hobby reading.” Additionally, I’ve been trying to develop more web specific content for the dairy extension publication I work on, and on two occasions authors have been offended when I suggested their work would be more useful in an online environment than print- they see the web as junior varsity venue for writing.
And of course there holes in these attitudes. The process of reading online doesn’t take any longer than reading printed materials. Studies show that we read a little slower on a screen, but the text is usually shorter, and we scan information more. From the academic publishing angle, there are several respected online-only journals in my field, notably the Journal of Extension and the Journal of Agricultural Education Online.
Those facts don’t negate the perception that reading/writing online is an inferior activity to printed materials, though. They fact is that Jeff, the friend who scoffs at YouTube, has preference for watching things on television as opposed to the computer and he firmly believes that preference is based on a matter of time and availability. I know he’s also never listened to InsectaPod Cast, and it’s mostly because he doens’t identify as an Internet Person.
It’s inarguable that the number of people who use the internet to access information continues to grow as access areas and speeds increase, but it’s important for me to be reminded form time to time that there remain lots of people out there who aren’t inclined to access web-based information regardless of issues related to the digital divide: They just don’t trust it, or like it, or maybe something else. Figuring out ways to change those perceptions would be a huge accomplishment, but is it possible?
robin on 24 Mar 2008 at 9:50 am #
Page looks great. I’ve been reading through a feed and just discovered the new layout.
Jeff might also not identify as a “bug person,” and if InsectaPod Cast were mostly about new ways of getting people thinking about whiskey and vintage LPs, he might be more inclined.
Professionally, I am tasked with motivating people who want to be environmentally active to stop writing letters to elected decisionmakers at the kitchen table and start hitting “send” online, using my employer’s website as a place to view different eco-actions.
A lot of times I’ll have an email from someone letting me know that he or she used my form letter text, printed it out, and mailed or faxed it to the appropriate party. They recognize that original content is not important, and that my employer benefits from knowing how many people take action, and they are interested in the internet enough not only to come to my website to find the actions, but also to email me directly letting me know they did so, which means a fairly thorough search of the website map.
I judge these activists’ intelligence harshly in these situations, but ultimately my job is about making it possible for people who care about eco issues to be able to use the internet to get active in a way that is comfortable for them. That said, I’m throwing buckets of money at a consultant right now to get a stupid “printer friendly” version of all my actions. This involved a two hour meeting about whether or not it was “on message” for an environmental group to encourage printing, mailing, or faxing unnecessarily. Decision: It’s not, but necessary regardless.