What will become of the written word?
Bolter poses an excellent thought in the first chapter of Writing Space. He simply states, “As we look up from our computer keyboard to the books on our shelves, we may be tempted to ask whether “this will destroy that.”
He mentions that the question does not have a definitive answer but if we look back in time, we see a remediation of past technologies. Clay tablets moved to papyrus scrolls which moved to manuscript codex on parchment. Then came the invention of the printing press and we still feel the effects of the printed word to this day. It seems that written technology changes over time and we are faced with a new form of technology that is growing in popularity day by day. The Internet, the computer, iPads, and e-readers are all forms of technology that may replace the book.
The picture above is meant to provide some comic relief but it raises an interesting point. E-readers were, “intended to be “an entirely new class of device” and “an exceptional reading experience” (Amazon, 2008) for readers” (Stone, 2008). They are light, portable and can store hundreds of books. There are a lot of positives to the e-reader but they aren’t without their fair share of drawbacks. They can be pricey, it’s more difficult to “share” a book with a friend, or the battery can die leaving the reader without a book to read. It also seems that a large number of people still enjoy the feel of a book in their hands. E-readers may not be the be-all and end-all people had hoped.
As we turn back to Bolter’s thought, even with a lack of confidence in e-readers, it is difficult to picture what a “book” will look like in the next fifty to one hundred years. I don’t believe the book as we know it will be destroyed by the computer; it will altered in a way that pays homage to the book. Our society is saturated with media and we are connected 24/7. New methods of creating text must reflect that so we are seeing increasingly more visuals and other forms of text into one (video, audio, images, etc. – Google Slides or PowerPoint for example).
All that being said, what might our society look like? Print might remain a physically prominent component in our culture but, as Baron, 2005, states,
The multifaceted aspects of western written culture would diminish in importance. That is, printed works might persist, but for what individual and social ends, and with what broader impact? (By analogy, think about university diplomas that are still written in Latin, though practically none of their recipients can decipher the text.)
It is an interesting thought to consider. Technology will continue to grow and become even more prevalent in our lives. We will have to, as a society, reconsider what the “written word” will be.
I explored a very similar topic in my post. The e-reader certainly has changed the way people experience ‘books’ and there are many that do prefer the feel of the actual page in their hands. It is also true, as you point out, that e-readers are more versatile and portable and capable of holding many texts at once. However, the explosion of growth in the e-reader market has waned. According to this article “Amazon’s Kindle e-reader sales are down, but so are most tablets”, growth has begun to sputter. In fact Amazon itself dropped nearly 70% in sales of its Kindle. Perhaps this is due to over saturation in the marketplace or maybe people are returning to books or to more versatile platforms such as the iPad which has multiple functions.
I, too, pointed out in my post about how the book seems to have not been destroyed over time even though there have been many technology changes. I think that digital technologies will not replace the book altogether. There will always be a place for the printed book as long as we have the ability to print. Perhaps the material that we will print on will change. Look at how money has changed over the years. It’s still money but printed on different materials in different parts of the world (i.e. our own currency from paper to that new polymer material currently in use).
So, in the end, I think the book is safe. After all, it has survived many near death experiences over the years
Works Cited
Lindsay, Rowena. “Amazon’s Kindle E-reader Sales Are Down, but so Are Most Tablets.” The Christian Science Monitor. The Christian Science Monitor, 3 Feb. 2015. Web. 30 June 2015.
“Polymer.” Polymer – Bank of Canada. Bank of Canada, n.d. Web. 30 June 2015.
I have been reading most of my book for the last year or so on my iPad. For me, reading an e-book is a different experience from a printed book. First, it took some time to stop the urge to turn pages in the old way. This was muscle memory and my hand automatically went to turn a page every time I reached the end of it. I now no longer do this. I also find that I no longer have the ‘stick with it’ attitude that I use with printed books. Generally if a book didn’t grab me at first I would ‘stick with it’ and eventually get into its rhythm. With the e-book, I have so many at my disposal that if I don’t click with a particular book I quickly change to another one. I probably have about 15 ‘false starts’ on my iPad right now. In printed books I only have one (Wuthering Heights, I just can’t get into that one!). Further, I can’t read my iPad wearing my sunglasses which means I can’t read outside, not a plus from my perspective.
Reading on an iPad seems to relegate reading to just another activity you can do on your device. It’s almost like one lacks commitment to the act of reading, whereas picking up a book is an experience that seems to say, “I am going to read this book”. The e-book makes it too easy to do something else.