The Reader’s Body: Reflections on the Embodiment of Digital Reading Practices and Technologies

Yazdani, Homa; Motevallian, Amin

doi:10.30465/ps.2025.52063.1786

The Reader’s Body: Reflections on the Embodiment of Digital Reading Practices and Technologies

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

Homa Yazdani ¹

Amin Motevallian ²

¹ Ph.D. in Philosophy of Science and Technology, associated member and lecturer at the University of Tubingen, Germany

² Assistant Professor, Department of history of science, Faculty of history and philosophy of science, IHCS, Tehran, Iran.,

https://doi.org/10.30465/ps.2025.52063.1786

Abstract

The transformation of reading tools and text medium —from printed paper books to e-readers and digital screens— is not merely a technological shift; it brings about a profound change in the perceptual and cognitive experience of the human reader. This article, drawing on contemporary phenomenological approaches in cognitive science, introduces and analyzes the concept of “embodied reading.” This concept highlights how the act of reading, depending on its material substrate, engages the reader’s mind and body in different ways. In traditional reading, not only vision but all human senses are activated in encountering the book, serving as material anchors for memorizing and decoding information. This sensory engagement creates a spatial and temporal sense of presence for the text, functioning as a scaffold for imagination and mental imagery. Language, too, is saturated with orientational and embedded metaphors. We learn and understand language through our bodily interaction with the world, and we recall our perceptual and emotional experience through recollection of our bodily situation in the environment. In contrast, digital texts, by reducing materiality and physicality, diminish this sensory involvement and challenge the cognitive and memory structures associated with it. Moreover, the weakening of the book’s integrity and coherence as a unified entity affects the reader’s sense of familiarity and control. Thus, different reading technologies and media are not mere carriers of information; they have specific affordances for the practice of reading and lead to different user experiences.
Keywords: Perception, Phenomenology, Embodiment, Embodied Cognition, Reading Studies, Digital Reading

Introduction
This article explores the transformation of the reading experience in the shift from printed books to digital texts, focusing on the embodied relationship between the reader, the medium, and cognitive processes. It addresses the central question of whether contemporary concerns about reduced concentration, shallow comprehension, weakened memory, and emotional detachment in digital reading are merely nostalgic responses to technological change or whether they stem from fundamental embodied differences between print and digital reading. Situated within the interdisciplinary field of Reading Studies and informed by phenomenology, embodied cognition theory, and cognitive science, the article conceptualizes reading as a multisensory, embodied, spatially and temporally situated practice rather than a purely mental or visual activity.
From this perspective, the book is not simply a container of meaning but a material object whose mode of existence shapes how readers interact with texts. The transition from the printed book to the digital text represents not only a technological shift but also a reconfiguration of the embodied conditions under which reading takes place. The article seeks to uncover the cognitive and experiential implications of this transformation.
Materials & Methods
The methodology of this study is conceptual and analytical, based on contemporary research, discussions and debates in reading’s studies that reflected in experimental and theoretical texts and practices.
Discussion& Results
The main discussion centers on the embodied nature of reading. The article first examines the role of the senses in traditional print reading. Printed books engage multiple senses simultaneously, including vision, touch, smell, and even hearing. Vision supports not only decoding but also aesthetic appreciation and spatial navigation, while touch—through holding, page-turning, and sensing weight and thickness—provides readers with a sense of control, continuity, and presence. These bodily interactions contribute to deeper comprehension and stronger memory formation.
Digital reading, by contrast, largely reduces reading to visual perception. The loss or attenuation of non-visual sensory input limits bodily participation in reading. Drawing on Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology, the article emphasizes that the body is the primary site of perception and meaning-making. Cognitive science further supports this view, showing that cognition arises from the integration of sensory input, bodily states, and embodied simulations grounded in lived experience. The article argues that digital reading weakens these integrative processes by diminishing sensory engagement.
The concept of “embodied reading” is then articulated through two dimensions: spatio-temporal and imaginary. The spatio-temporal dimension highlights how the physical stability of printed books—fixed pagination, consistent layout, weight, and volume—allows readers to orient themselves intuitively within a text. Digital texts, characterized by fluidity and spatial indeterminacy, often lack such cues, leading to disorientation. The imaginary dimension refers to the embodied mental imagery involved in reading. Both narrative and expository texts require sensorimotor simulations rooted in bodily experience, which may be less effectively supported in digital environments.
The article further examines the embodied nature of mind and language through memory and metaphor. Human memory encodes experiences as multimodal configurations that integrate sensory, spatial, emotional, and conceptual elements. Printed books function as stable external anchors for such encoding, facilitating recall. Additionally, drawing on Lakoff and Johnson’s theory of conceptual metaphor, the article demonstrates that human thought and language are fundamentally embodied and structured through spatial metaphors that influence textual understanding and evaluation.
The discussion concludes with an analysis of the book as an object. Printed books possess physical unity, permanence, and personal ownership, enabling emotional attachment and a sense of wholeness. Digital books, by contrast, are fluid, access-based, and lack material integrity. Paper, as a reading tool, is also shown to support analytical practices such as annotation, comparison, and deep learning more effectively.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the article acknowledges that digital reading is unavoidable and offers practical advantages, yet it cautions that the loss of materiality and embodied engagement may result in shallower comprehension and more fragile memory. Rather than advocating a complete replacement of print with digital media, the article proposes a complementary and context-sensitive approach that recognizes the cognitive importance of embodied interaction. Such an approach is especially crucial in educational contexts and for early readers, where the embodied foundations of reading and learning play a decisive role.

Keywords

: Perception

Phenomenology

Embodiment

Embodied Cognition

Reading Studies

Digital Reading

Subjects

Philosophy of technology

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