Will paper survive the digital era?
It’s a discussion, that started couple of weeks ago with an article of Alex Iskold and really got me thinking.
I really enjoy the merits of technology and always welcome new innovations; but also like going back to print and reading a good book.
So maybe, I would never set books aside to read from any other digital form; but this is just me.
But if we see the subject in a more global level, could digitalization really overpower print? I think not, due to the very nature of these two media.
Print Media
Marshall McLuhan once noted
All the words in the world cannot describe an object like a bucket, although it is possible to tell in a few words how to make a bucket.
Words are inadequate to convey visual information. They leave everything to the imagination, as one of the great laws of bibliography signifies:
The more there were, the fewer there are.
Print allows us to mentally react to and reconstruct information, but this is not the property that will allow it to survive digitalization.
The greatest asset for its survival is, that it requires our full attention and doesn’t allow any abstractions.
Imagine being completely isolated, with just one book in your pocket. If you decide to “interact” with the book, your only option is to concentrate on the book and read it.
Digital Media
Now imagine being completely isolated, with just your laptop. You can watch film, read text, listen to music, connect with people and many more. The possibilities provided by a digital medium are countless.
The coexistence of overlapping windows is now a fundamental principle of the modern GUI and in fact a very common practice among users. Lack of concentration is bound to happen, when several services run simultaneously.
This coexistence of information in a digital medium can be compared with the phenomenon of zapping.
Under that perspective, I find it very hard to substitute paper with any digital medium.
If we disregard the tiresome effect of reading from a screen or the difficulty of editing (running your pen over the text to underline and keep notes), digital reading is still not our best choice. In digital media, the distractions are many and reading would require much more time.
Conclusion
I disagree here with Mark Dykeman, since I don’t see paper dying, even if we had
- better screens,
- easier to edit text and
- free internet access everywhere.
A monitor has multimedia possibilities, paper doesn’t. Whenever we are dealing with a lengthy read or an important document, paper is necessary to keep us concentrated.
For me the only option of digital replacing print is when E-Paper replaces tree-paper. Although, we are far from it realization, such a technology could bring revolutionary results, only because it utilizes the advantages of the digital by keeping simplicity of paper.
I’m really interested to see, how you see this potential of the extinction of paper.
How often do you print out documents you want to read? If you observe the younger generations and the popularity of newspapers, books and magazines, could you imagine the near future without massive use of paper?
Mark Dykeman responded on 25 Mar 2008 at 12:28 pm #
I don’t think that you and I are really in disagreement except for the focusing power of a paper document.
One concern that I have about E-Paper is that you still only see one page at a time, then you have to keep flipping back and forth. This relates to my point #2 about the difficulties in editing online. The same holds true for reading a large document, I think.
Paul M. Banas responded on 25 Mar 2008 at 1:14 pm #
I do think our paper consumption will go down. The paperless office used to be a joke, since computers tended to produce more paper not less (”I just hit print and I get a 100 page document”). But now people are moving away from vast paper files to more convenient and efficient electronic ones.
Your reasoning behind print’s future existence is a unique way to look at it. I just wonder if future digital generations will have the abilities to appreciate communication that’s not multi-media, such that they can visualize in their heads an abstract thought or image that isn’t glowing on the screen in front of them. I believe (and this is a hypothesis) the ability to calculate anything more than rudimentary sums in ones head has failed to survive even 30 years of pocket calculators across most modern societies. Just try watching someone make change without use of a printout or LED screen.
I’d also add the more mundane fact that print has a portability and durability that digital can’t yet match. This may change, but no one is probably thinking that taking a Kindle to the beach for some summer reading is a very good idea yet.
Bill responded on 25 Mar 2008 at 6:40 pm #
It is also just more satisfying to hold a newspaper or a book in your hand. Do you want to sit in a park with a laptop or a kindle in your lap? I think holding print over electronics is just a more natural feeling.
On a side note you need a comment button at the bottom of your entries.
robojiannis responded on 25 Mar 2008 at 7:07 pm #
@Mark
my disagreement was on your 3 points, that - when fullfilled - would make paper obsolete; I think more parameters would be required.
I agree, that e-paper is still in a premature phase. I wonder, though, if it will manage to replace paper even when improved…
@Paul
you raise, once more, some very interesting points. Paper portability and low cost are also couple of its great advantages. I would never risk getting the smallest grain of sand in my laptop.
@Bill
I totally agree. I wonder though, if future generations, which will live with less newspapers, will find it similarly satisfactory holding paper and not a laptop.
Maybe we are just used to paper and in the future, people will surpass that need. Digital costs will be that low to take your computer to the beach and reading from it won’t be such a big deal.
People could once argue, that sending letters with the post was a romantic, genuine gesture, that just feels more right than sending SMS. Still this communication is slowly lost and we constantly get accustomed to others.
On your side note, Bill, I can see a “Submit Comment” under the comment box in three of my browsers… I checked the code and it seems nice. Thanks for the notification, I’ll take a deeper look at it.
Bill responded on 25 Mar 2008 at 7:33 pm #
I meant off the main page. Sorry for confusion.
Steve Robson responded on 26 Mar 2008 at 5:09 pm #
I think the key to this discussion is to separate fiction from non-fiction. I talk to hundreds of magazine publishers and hundreds of authors and get very different reactions.
Print publishers are going through the same knee jerk reactions that the music industry went through. They are obsessed with creating digital copies of their magazines in the form of page turners or locking away ebooks with draconian DRM. Neither of these approaches understand the way that people use the web for their information and data requirements.
On the web readers want information to be easy to find, easy to read, and relevant. If they have to pay for it then they want that process to be simple and easy as well. Hardly any publishers have grasped this and are going to suffer the same fate of the record companies.
One area which print is still relevant is fiction. As someone already mentioned who wants to take their laptop to the beach. ePaper is clearly a solution for this. The major revolution however, will be in the hands of the authors. Thanks to print on demand sites like http://www.LuLu.com authors can bypass the old dinosaur publishers and reach their audience directly. Just like bands have done with MySpace.
At the end of the day the argument isn’t about paper vs digital, its about those who get it and those who don’t. Those that don’t are already getting left behind.
Chris responded on 26 Mar 2008 at 5:58 pm #
Some interesting points in your article and the comments thread.
I don’t think paper will ever die out, maybe it won’t be used as much, but cinema didn’t die when video came out. People still go to the cinema because it’s the experience of going to the cinema that they enjoy.
The only way for digital books to challenge paper books is to bring in gestures for turning the page (a little bit like this link: http://www.futureofthebook.org/blog/archives/2008/02/student_designer_envisions_a_m.html).
Perhaps fiction in the future won’t necessarily take place in a book alone either, http://www.cathysbook.com/ is good example of this. You can read the book, but there are also clues on the web and you can call phone lines to hear more about the story.
I thought the recent Penguin story using googlemaps was also pretty inventive way to tell a story. (http://www.wetellstories.co.uk/stories/week1/)
Bill responded on 26 Mar 2008 at 6:29 pm #
I don’t think that people are ready for on demand printing or atleast yet. On demand printing really helps the smaller authors. Lets say that one of these authors has a loyal following of around 5,000 readers. Being able to print on demand can be useful for him. But to Barnes and Noble and other stores of that caliber 5,000 or so world wide sales are not going to make that big of difference. Why not just carry the book on the store where it will undoubtly do better? Also there is a certain social aspect to a brick and motar store. You can to there and pick up and flip through a book before purchase. With amazon and the such all you get is small blurb about the general gist of the book. You have no idea how the author writes. I know I have read a couple of awesome sounding blurbs online and then got to the store and realized I hate the way the author writes. And if the on demand model is widely adopted do you think the there will be c on demand store fronts? I dont think they would do very well. It would not the same going in to a giant print shop compared to bookstore. Where you can just lounge around and talk to friend compared to walking ordering a book and leaving after it is printed.
For on demand printing to get big we will have to wait for the older generations to “fade away” for a lack of a nicer way of putting it. Our generation and younger ones dont mind convience for loss of a more social enviroment.
Also sorry for the block of text. I did this all on my iPod.
robojiannis responded on 27 Mar 2008 at 2:07 pm #
I totally agree with your points Chris. If books were to turn into digital media, then they should take full advantage of the potential of digitalization.
The links you provided are really inspiring; i found especially the google.maps stories a great idea, which could be developed even more. Great idea!
David responded on 29 Mar 2008 at 8:06 pm #
For me, there is a completely different emotion and feel, from when I read things on paper–or book–and digitized. It’s an emotion. So that’s why I can say that I don’t think books or newspapers will ever all be digitized.
robojiannis responded on 31 Mar 2008 at 10:05 am #
I totally agree with you David. But, I’m wondering if we are becoming a bit traditional and not open to new technologies. My grandfather doesn’t like word-prossecors, because he enjoys writing with pen and paper. I respect that, but word-processors are just a faster tool.
Are we moving to the same direction, when we are talking about books like that?
Your link to your site doesn’t work. Is it wwww.derivativere.com? I get a 400 error…
David responded on 31 Mar 2008 at 7:41 pm #
@ robojiannis
I’m pretty much in agreement with the digitization of media, especially newspapers. Being a Bibliophile, reading a book on the p.c. isn’t the same experience for me. I’m saying that the two pretty much will co-exist with the digitization increasing but the paper will remain.
The URL is up. I think you typed 4 zeros into it.
David responded on 31 Mar 2008 at 7:41 pm #
make that 4 www’s.
John smith responded on 16 Apr 2008 at 12:53 pm #
Nice post, Distribution over the internet is booming now. Survey’s also predicting that online readership rate is increased rapidly from that past three years. Circulation over the new technology mediums like web, RSS, pod cast, blog, mobile, social media are in boom and these mediums replaced the traditional publishing and generating revenues for the publishers. Companies like http://www.pressmart.net helping print publishers in digitization and distribution of the publication over the above mediums.