This blog is currently on a quest to investigate further the future of the reading experience by diving deep into the worlds of Amazon, Goodreads, and Kindles. This quest starts here on this blog, is coordinated in our English class and will eventually result in an ebook of our own. We started our more intensive research this week, beginning with focusing on Goodreads. Check out this little snippet from an article by Lisa Nakamura called "Words with Friends: Socially Networked Reading on Goodreads."
"Goodreads user profiles feature virtual bookshelves to be displayed to friends, creating a bibliocentric as well as an egocentric network of public reading performance."
Now this idea right here could definitely have a place in our ebook. Nakamura goes on to comment,
"Facebook offers up our list of friends as visual evidence of our social graph, letting us create and display our connections, Goodreads foregrounds reading as a spectacle of collecting."
How true is that? See Facebook, Instagram, and all the other social networking sites have created this sense in many that part of the value of doing something is sharing it with others. Have you heard the new saying all the kids are using?
Now, as "egocentric" as Nakamura points out that this is, think about how this could be a positive thing when it applies to the world of reading. Would it be terrible if there was social pressure to read more? To read better books? To share your thoughts on what you're reading? I don't think so. I can even see this pressure starting to work on me as I have been exploring Goodreads. As I see what my peers are reading (and how much some of them are reading. Could you slow down Melanee? I can't keep up!) I feel an increased desire to read more and to share more. Is this in part because of some deep, self-centered desire fueled by the social networking phenomenon? I'm not sure. But I am surrendering to it.
As Goodreads gains more traction I think that the social aspect of it could promote expanded reading habits for many different groups. I think channeling the power of social media in this way would be just slightly more significant than making people feel like they should post pictures of what they made for dinner.
Now, as "egocentric" as Nakamura points out that this is, think about how this could be a positive thing when it applies to the world of reading. Would it be terrible if there was social pressure to read more? To read better books? To share your thoughts on what you're reading? I don't think so. I can even see this pressure starting to work on me as I have been exploring Goodreads. As I see what my peers are reading (and how much some of them are reading. Could you slow down Melanee? I can't keep up!) I feel an increased desire to read more and to share more. Is this in part because of some deep, self-centered desire fueled by the social networking phenomenon? I'm not sure. But I am surrendering to it.
As Goodreads gains more traction I think that the social aspect of it could promote expanded reading habits for many different groups. I think channeling the power of social media in this way would be just slightly more significant than making people feel like they should post pictures of what they made for dinner.
Wait, I love this. That's a really great concept--using the social pressure to get people to start reading more. It's definitely true with me! Once I have time and I'm not engulfed by homework, that is. For now, I just surrender.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting to wonder what the driving force is behind our posts. I've recently been studying the "selfie" and some studies show that the more selfies a person takes the less intimate their friendships are. I'm curious to see if the trend to competely digitize literature will have the same affect. We'll be "close" to our online friends, but not to our "real life" friends.
ReplyDeleteJenna, that study about selfies is fascinating! That is something that hangs me up about goodreads... I fear the motivation to post will cheapen the experience of reading, which, I realize now has always been kind of a sacred thing for me. However, I agree with Meghan that pressure to read more is definitely a good thing. Interesting post! When we talk about how posting about reading would be better than posting about what we ate for dinner last night, I completely agree. I guess too much of what I see on social media seems so fake and contrived, I want to keep reading out of it. But maybe books could class social media platforms up. That's the side I want to focus on.
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