ICC student symposium 2012 at the AUC.
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19
May 2012
22:32
Bye bye books. Hello Kindle?
April 29, 2010
Bye bye books. Hello Kindle?
Floppy disks – do you still remember those? This Monday the definitive end of floppy disks was announced in De Volkskrant (Dutch newspaper). This of course is no surprise as we now have USB sticks which can store up to 256 GB instead of the floppy disks maximum of 1.44 MB. So arguing that the era of the floppy disk has come to an end seems to be a valid claim. Personally I don’t think this is a problem, since the last time I used a floppy disk is more than 10 years ago. No nostalgic feelings there whatsoever.
However, it does make one think of the speed with which technology is changing and renewing itself these days. Not only floppy disks, but also video tapes, audio tapes and LP’s (and perhaps soon dvd’s) have all been changed for more efficient and innovative technologies in the last couple of years. This whole concept of changing technologies reminds me of a lecture by Professor David Thornburn I attended last week called “No Elegies for Gutenberg”. In this lecture he discussed the future of printed media. Printed media of course has permeated our lives in a way more extensive way than floppy disks ever have. So a world without printed media is perhaps more difficult to grasp than a world without floppy disks. It would mean there wouldn’t be any books, printed newspapers or magazines anymore. This idea tends to scary many people, as they argue that technology is changing too rapidly, which will cause us to lose knowledge and become more superficial. Also, many are afraid that without books, future children will no longer appreciate the world heritage literature has brought us. The question is, however, whether it will truly come this far.
Professor Thornburn for example doesn’t think so; or at least not in the near future. He argues that people always become overexcited and obsessed with new technology. For example when the TV was invented, many people thought the radio would disappear. Up till know, however, this is not the case. He thinks that books are just too easy to use and too solid for them to disappear. He illustrated this by arguing that a book will survive a fall from the Empire State Building, whereas an e-reader would be damaged beyond repair. So in everyday use a book indeed seems to have some advantages in comparison to the e-readers.
To me, however, the idea of a future without printed media does sound quite plausible. The majority of literature I have to read or want to read is only available online. The advantage of reading online is that texts become hypertexts. You can easily link from one text to another. The only thing that keeps me from reading texts online so far is the screen of my laptop. There are too many distracting options available and the screen itself is too tiring for your eyes. Emerging technologies such as the Kindle and other e-readers, however, have tackled this problem by creating a screen that doesn’t look like a screen at all. It very much resembles reading from a book. So I think it is very well possible that when the Kindle and other e-readers become commercialized, the book will eventually disappear.
I’d also like to hear what you all think? Will books indeed disappear with the emergence of e-readers? Would you want to read from e-readers only instead of books?
Comments
Nice topic.
I think that the Kindle (or other e-readers) will definitely play a pivotal role in the future of texts, but I don't think that books will entirely disappear. With an e-reader I can think of many situations in which I would fear to use it. Think of the beach where sand might ruin it, or near a pool with the threat of water.
Nevertheless, i'm definitely looking forward to reading pdf-files in a book format for my study!
I'm probably too pathetically stuck with hopeless feelings of nostalgia to be unbiased about this issue. It's only lucky for the book that I'm quite likely not the only one...
If the book has to disappear, at least it's going to take a while because people like me are still going to want their bookshelves filled with actual books.
Having said that, ever since Moore formulated his famous law, information technology seems to have no other desire than to present us with more processing power and data storage at ever decreasing prices. When it comes to sharing information, the internet is unbeatable. Since the internet, we have seen photos make their way to it (it is probably more common to have an online photo album than a solid copy now), music has made its way from CDs to iTunes and other online stores, as well as video. The only thing stopping books from moving to the internet as well is inferior display technology, and that's being worked on right now. It only makes sense that we're going to end up with electronic solutions that are of near-book quality when reading, along with countless benefits that regular books could never offer.
I'm probably too pathetically stuck with hopeless feelings of nostalgia to be unbiased about this issue. It's only lucky for the book that I'm quite likely not the only one...
If the book has to disappear, at least it's going to take a while because people like me are still going to want their bookshelves filled with actual books.
Having said that, ever since Moore formulated his famous law, information technology seems to have no other desire than to present us with more processing power and data storage at ever decreasing prices. When it comes to sharing information, the internet is unbeatable. Since the internet, we have seen photos make their way to it (it is probably more common to have an online photo album than a solid copy now), music has made its way from CDs to iTunes and other online stores, as well as video. The only thing stopping books from moving to the internet as well is inferior display technology, and that's being worked on right now. It only makes sense that we're going to end up with electronic solutions that are of near-book quality when reading, along with countless benefits that regular books could never offer.
Reading from an e-reader forms a different experience than a regular book, call me old-fashioned but I think nothing can beat the feel of paper on your hand while you drift away in thrilling adventures.
I guess I could say i'm also old-fashioned in that sense, but what about reading pdf files for school? Would you rather print those files instead of using an e-reader? Also imagine the convenience when going on holiday for example, and you don't have to worry about the weight of books. And of course there are many more occassions when e-readers are more convenient.
So in a world where we want everything to be as efficient as possible, don't you think the e-reader in the end will be the most used medium for reading texts? Of course it might be so that people on a rainy Sunday afternoon will curl up on the sofa rather with a book than an e-reader, but the question is what they will do in everyday, hasty life.
Examples seem what... out of context, but I sure do agree with the last paragraph. The simple fact that a monitor does not read easy, its extremely heavy to the eyes. The mind mind can not focus that well on a screen that broadcasts light.
I once tried to read a book in pdf on a computer, I think I managed to do 20%, and then I pushed myself. When I bought the book I finished it in three days.
Lucky my book doesn't run out of energy, and I can pick it out of my pocket and it nearly opens automatically on the page in finished. No way an e-reader is going to beat that ;D
No offense, but I do think an e-reader is going to beat that :p
First of all the e-reader does open on the last page you read. I quote the Kindle information page: "You'll never need to bookmark your last place in the book, because Kindle remembers for you and always opens to the last page you read." And with some books this definitely doesn't happen that automatically
Of course a book doesn't run out of energy, but that doesn't weigh up to the many advantages of the Kindle. Plus if you turn wireless off you can read for a week or more, that's not that bad ;p
And does a book contain a built-in dictionary, adjustable text size or the possibility to switch to another book within a few moves? Don't think so ;-)
I think one has to take into account the history of art when confronting this topic.
Painting was freed from the chains of representing reality, an index if you will, by photography. Painting would never manage to create an index due to the subjective nature of the painter with paints. When photography emerged people embraced it and understood it as a mechanical reality representation device.
After this photography evolved into the motion picture. This allowed photography to move away from narration and take a much more abstract role.
So in art we see a pattern where the creation of a more indexical method has freed the previous art of its' indexical role.
Although, at this moment, it is impossible to say what repercussions the change from physical to digital will cause. I would suggest that throughout history humanity has proven that it will fear what it does not know or fully understand.
This progression is a natural technological advancement. I do not think that the change from physical to digital will limit children's understanding of literature's connection with world heritage. I think the use of digital materials in education will be benefitial to children who are from poorer backgrounds. This means that children will have access to a wider range of materials and instant access to topics that interest them (due to digital media offering word searching).
The other advantage that I think will allow the digital to conquer the physical is a good opportunity for translations into different languages. Digital text is obviously much easier to manipulate than ink on paper. Meaning a wider variety of children will be able to access the books.
These advantages show that future generations will not have a limited knowledge but in fact access to a much wider knowledge base than we have at present. Hopefully giving the children more of a connection with literature's world heritage than you suggest.
Very interesting thoughts there Alan! I really like how you link it to the history of art.
However, I do not fully agree with your argument on literature. It might be the case that kids with poorer backgrounds will stick with books, but what about the Western world for example? More and more schools equip their students with laptops in classes, which causes books to disappear in not only their educational lives of kids, but also in their normal lives. Why read a book if you can play online games or watch funny youtube clips? It is also argued by many that kids nowadays have too short of an attention span to read a book, as a result of constant switching between fragmented sources of information.
So I do agree with you that it's very likely that future children will have a much wider knowledge base, but I only fear that this will come at a cost...
The example of dropping a book from the Empire State Building - and thus claiming that traditional books are more durable - doesn't seem valid to me. What if I lose a book or my house burns down. I've lost my physical copy of a book I bought and there is no way of retrieving my book without actually repurchasing a copy. When I buy an eBook through Amazon or other retailer I acquire the rights of reading the book, download it to my device whenever I please and download it as often as I'd like (most of the time). I could lose my Kindle, but I could still access my earlier purchased books.
Paper as a medium has served us for ages as a data container, but isn't ideal. The quality of paper degrades over time, is prone to water and fire damage and maintaining a large collection of books requires loads of space compared to e.g. a hard disk. I'm not saying that digital should take over paper (I love the looks of a well-stocked bookshelf), but digital does have the edge. Information in easily indexable, searchable and computable.
In an ideal world, every physical book sold would include a free eBook which could be used as the buyer pleases e.g. when going on holiday or classes.
Joël, I can't say anything other than that I fully agree with you.
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