Class 3: Paper or Metal?
I think print media is losing ground to electronic media in both content and delivery systems because actual books are now outdated. I agree with author Terry Deary in the article “Libraries Have had their day,” when he stated “I’m not attacking libraries, I’m attacking the concept behind libraries, which is no longer relevant.” He is right. People no longer have a use for libraries. The tablets, smartphones and other electronic devices have taken over the old way of walking into a library to check out a book. Now you can download or rent books with a motion as quick as a click. Reading and research is still getting done, but it’s no longer being done in a library. It’s sad because this generation and the ones to follow will never know the feeling of what is was like to check a book out or know what a librarian is. They will never know what it is to meet your friends in the library to wirk on a project or assignment and really all we used to do was gossip and socialize. Libraries brought about camaraderie. Libraries were used as excuses to not have to go straight home from school. I don’t envy this new technology age of youngsters who will never know what it feels like to walk up and down aisles of paperbacks and hardcovers of people who thousands of years ago gave everything just to write. It’s so sad to me that libraries will be extinct within the next 10 years. Only college libraries will probably still exist.
In the article “The End of Books,” it gives us a deeper look into how different it is to now begin the process of writing novels. They talk about taking away the pen and paper aspect of writing and focus more on “hypertext writing.” Even though hypertext is only a term used, it’s actual description is what is assisting with taking out the authoring of books. Hypertext gives writers new options, new directions, and new styles in which to make new “books.” It’s still all done on computers, so again it’s another way of taking out print media. I still appreciate the art of writing through pen and paper. I think all the fun is in the creativity of imagining things and then writing about them to make a what was at first a small thought into something for everyone to read.
