The Death of Paper

I've been thinking some this weekend about Cory Doctorow's recent editorial about reading books on computer screens. The issue really is, as Cory notes, one of different cognitive styles used when reading online versus reading a printed book. The point is also well made that technology causes cognitive shifts. Cory says this nicely:

The novel is an invention, one that was engendered by technological changes in information display, reproduction, and distribution. The cognitive style of the novel is different from the cognitive style of the legend. The cognitive style of the computer is different from the cognitive style of the novel.

The question, then, is not will there ever be a nice enough e-reader that users will abandon paper, but rather, are we undergoing a technological transformation that will shift the form of the novel, too? Will readers ever want to abandon the types of reading that paper lends itself to for the types of reading that computers lend themselves to? Or is there some new form of narrative that blends the best of the novel with the best of online writing? And then, finally, could this form of writing replace printed books?

Borrowing from the life (and death) of CD and film

Some would say mp3 has killed the CD, that streaming video has overrun cinema. Certainly downloading single songs has boomed, and YouTube or podcasts like the show with zefrank show the best of what can be done online with 3 minute videos. I think our project at Washington Post, onBeing, is another example of creative online video story telling.

Have these things killed cinema? Has iTunes destroyed CDs or long-form "albums?" You can make comparative claims to this effect -- CD sales are down and downloads are up; movie theater attendance is dwindling. I can make my own comparative analysis. When I go to FYE at my local mall, I see a lot of CDs and lots of people buying them. Every Friday night in Auburn, there is still a line for tickets at the Wynsong 16.

Obviously, people find the experience of the thing as useful as the thing itself, be it music, movies, or even books. I have no fear either way, and no dog in the fight, as older Southern men are want to say. I love bits as much as words. I have my doubts, however, that printed books will be disappearing anytime soon.

Posted by deryck on March 19, 2007

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