Are Readers An Endangered Species?
Much has been written, and discussed, regarding the future of publishing in the digital age.
Even I have an opinion, although it’s still in the process of forming. And to tell you the truth, I’m not sure yet when that will be.
Why?
Because the future of publishing depends upon the future of readers.
But where do they stand in this maelstrom of change?
Are they truly being taken into consideration by those debating how, and on what, they will be reading a novel, journal, or magazine?
There is an excellent article titled, “Will e-Books Create An Elite Reading Class?” by Karin Slaughter that speaks to this issue. She is passionate and eloquent and I urge you to read her thoughts on the matter.
E-Books, and the devices needed to read them, are in our future. However, are they in all our futures? The accessibility of digital books is a strong attractant, yet a specific kind of tool – an expensive one – is needed to enjoy them.
As Slaughter notes:
Minimum wage still trails behind the price of most paperbacks. Do we really expect a person who has to work roughly three and a half hours a day in order to earn the price of a hardcover book to shell out the money for an electronic reader?
Also, in terms of accessibility to everyone, there is another and more “thorny” matter to think about. According to the CEO of Macmillan, John Sargent:
. . . getting a book from libraries has had a tremendous amount of friction. You have to go to the library, maybe the book has been checked out and you have to come back another time. With eBooks, you sit on your couch in your living room and go to the library website, see if the library has it, maybe you check libraries in three other states. You get the book, read it, return it and get another, all without paying a thing.
It’s like Netflix, but you don’t pay for it. How is that a good model for us?
If there’s a model where the publisher gets a piece of the action every time the book is borrowed, that’s an interesting model.
- taken from eBooks in Libraries a Thorny Problem, Says Macmillan CEO by Eric Hellman
I applaud Sargent for participating in a dialog in order to determine the best model possible for his company and for digital publishing.
But at what cost?
Libraries should not bear the burden of dealing with a business model derived from misinformation, or a lack of it.
What he, and all of us must realize, is that those who are making decisions regarding the future of e-Books, are also affecting the future of those who will read them.
A simplistic statement to be certain. However, in my experience, all new technology is a double-edged sword. My worry is that while wielding it, we forget ourselves and fail to realize we’ve gone too far and cut away something vital and irreplaceable.
Books are not only informational, they are transformative. And everyone – everyone - should be allowed to experience such a transformation. They should not be denied this due to their financial situation.
Readers are the future.
Just not the ones that think with chips.
I worry about the same thing. I also worry about how much education funding is getting cut and how more and more kids struggle to read period. I’ll go read the Slaughter article!
1E-readers like DVD players, Blu-Ray and every other electronic product that comes out will eventually get cheaper and cheaper and the books will level off at paper back price eventually. It is something that will come to be and I think that the new storm of teens and pre-teens reading thanks to authors J.K. Rowling, and dare I say it? Stephanie Meyer have created a new generation of readers and increased the number of bookworms world wide.
2Personally, I don’t really understand all the attraction that e-readers have to people. I love the feel of having a physical book in my hand. I love going to the library and browsing the stacks. Not having that experience would devastate me. I work at the University library and there are seniors who come in without knowing how to use the library to access information. How sad is that? I hate the idea of living in a world where people don’t go to the library because they can get everything off the internet or on their e-reader.
3Wonderful points Jo! I get worried everytime I hear a photographer describe images as the literature of the future. While many young people love reading, I’ve been seeing more with no interest in it at all!
4If more barriers keep appearing in front of reading I really wonder where we’ll end up.
The title of this post instantly made me think of other fears I have about endangered “types”…like, for example, my mom is fabulous at gardening and my dad can fix absolutely everything. No one I know at my age possesses any of these skills, and I wonder if those will be lost arts. Professions like cobblers and seamstresses…who now is going to devote themselves to developing those skills in our digital world?
In terms of books and education, digital can enhance, but I will never believe it can replace!
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