Reading socialization in public digital reading platforms in Chile

The article explores the socialization of reading within the Biblioteca Pública Digital and the Biblioteca Digital Escolar, two public digital reading platforms in Chile. By analyzing these digital interaction environments—their affordances and functionalities—through the lens of the concept of technical code and interviews with users, we demonstrate that socialization is caught between a paradigm that remediates print-based reading and another, inherent to the digital medium, that facilitates sharing, commenting, and publishing. Despite the constraints placed on the socialization of reading, users devise strategies that reflect a modular creativity in reading practices. The article ultimately reflects on the characteristics that public policies for access to digital reading should have.