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Digital Social Reading

Sharing Fiction in the Twenty-First Century

By: Federico Pianzola

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eText | 21 January 2025

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How digital social reading apps are powerfully changing—and nurturing—the way we read.

Conventional wisdom would have us believe that digital technology is a threat to reading, but in Digital Social Reading, Federico Pianzola argues that reading socially through digital media can help people grow a passion for reading and, in some cases, even enhance text comprehension. Digital social reading (DSR) is a term that encompasses a wide variety of practices related to the activity of reading and using digital technologies and platforms (websites, social media, mobile apps) to share thoughts and impressions about books with others. This book is the first systematization of DSR practices, drawing on case studies from Wattpad, AO3, and Goodreads on a worldwide scale.

Using a combination of qualitative and computational methods, Pianzola offers fresh insight into the reading experience on the scale of big data. He discusses the impact of digital technology on reading skills and shows that a change of methodological perspective is necessary to understand the positive potential of DSR for promoting reading more broadly. He argues that it is not just the medium that changes, but also the context and the attitudes of readers. He also believes that grassroots media and open, bottom-up communities are crucial to the success of many reading practices today, especially with young audiences.