Will novels eventually be considered to be something of the past?
Its hard to believe that novels will continue to exist as the world becomes technologically advanced. In a growing age the concept of "pen and paper" has begun to seem more and more prehistoric, as growth of BBM-ing and Facebook comments are on the rise. There are so many "greener" options to write down ones thoughts and I feel that despite all odds novels in there conventional form will become a rarity, to our iGeneration.
I do not believe that books will become completely extinct for our society, especially those that are for entertainment purposes strictly. However I do believe that biographies and other "educational" texts will eventually develop into a carefully arranged series of "wikis". Despite the wonderful smell and ability to curl up in bed with them, books I feel will be replaced by the idea of quick finds and convenience of online texts. Lets just hope its later than sooner.
I think that I'm addicted to screens. I personally like looking at them. Tv's? Computers? They're all wonderful. And I'm not the only one. Last year at my high school we did this experiment where we turned on a tv in the main hall and counted how many people stopped whatever they were doing to look at it. I don't remember the wxact number, but the majority of people stopped and looked at the screen. Keep in mind, it had no volume and was playing a tape of somebody who was walking down a street. Nothing interesting. Lets face it, everyone's addicted to screens. I'm sure we all spend WAY more time looking at screens than reading things on paper. For example, I do all my research on sites like jstor and infotrack. It's so much easier and faster than going to the library and flipping through books. Sure, its nice to curl up with a book but it's also nice to curl up with a laptop? Times have changed. Is that so wrong?
ReplyDelete