Are e-books to paper books…
…as MP3’s (digital music files) are to CD and … vinyl?
I pose this question because I’m noticing that some of our reflections about e-books v hard copy books mirror some of the dialogue one hears about the relative advantages and disadvantages of digital music files (and other kinds of digital files, like photo files) to their analog counterparts.
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bcourey 9:17 am on October 14, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Let’s go all the way back to horses and “horseless carriages”. Same nostalgia for the good old days..
kstooshnov 10:57 am on October 14, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
On that sense of nostalgia for technological innovations, I like to refer to a set of rules coined by Douglas Adams (2003):
“1. Anything that is in the world when you’re born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works.
2. Anything that’s invented between when you’re fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it.
3. Anything invented after you’re thirty-five is against the natural order of things.” (p. 95)
“We notice things that don’t work. We don’t notice things that do. We notice computers, we don’t notice pennies. We notice e-book readers, we don’t notice books.” (p. 110)
Adams, Douglas (2003). The Salmon of Doubt. London: Pan Books.
David William Price 10:21 am on October 14, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I suspect a good deal of this issue has a lot to do with context. If you associate a computer or gadgets with a certain context (work, anxiety, certain kinds of thoughts or feelings) you may find that context uncomfortable when you wish to engage in other activities (reading, relaxing).
Perhaps people hold on to certain contexts (such as browsing bookstores, picking up paper books, browsing music stores, picking up vinyl) because they have romantic attachments to that context (touch, smell, etc.)
Consider the difference in context between listening to a perfect rendition of music as an MP3 on your computer vs. standing in a crowded concert hall listening to anxious and fatigued musicians throwing themselves into a set amid the sounds and smells of food, beer, and murmured appreciate of fans.
How much do we associate “experience” with a context? How important is that association based on our ability to manage our various anxieties? Anxiety can drive us to print something out before we revise it, wander out of our office to work in a kitchen or living room or conference room instead, etc. We may misinterpret our anxiety coping habits as part of the experience of media (going to a bookstore context, wandering the aisles, browsing instead of searching, having a coffee, bumping into someone we know, the sights, smells, textures, etc.)