Last night I watched a program on BBC iPlayer called ‘Books - The Last Chapter?’ about the future of the book in the digital age. Yesterday I wrote a bit about the idea of a book and what it actually is. Today I want to write a bit about community.
The experience of book reading and buying used to be a communal activity. Bookstores and libraries were ideal because your were able to go and discuss with others which books might be good and see what it was that others were reading and buying. Until reasonably recently the idea of reading was of reading aloud together, sharing the experience of a book. The idea of reading on alone is a more recent phenomenon. With the dawn of the ebook there is a possibility that any community aspect of the reading experience will be lost. I could now buy a book and be reading it in 30 seconds without moving an inch. I have no reason to speak to anyone else or interact at all. This is potentially dangerous. I believe in community, I believe people were made to be in relationship with one another and it would be terrible for something which has been such a tool for community to become something which isolates and creates individualism.
While there is a danger of digital publishing destroying community I believe that there is also a possibility for the restoration of community through collaborative reading technology and social networking. When I highlight a passage in a book I read on my iPad the system notes this and sends the information to the cloud. I am able to share my ideas about a book with others all over the world. I can see in the books I’m reading which bits have been highlighted most. I can share notes about sentences or ideas and learn from others’ interpretations of texts. Perhaps we could push towards a more collaborative approach to reading again. A class at school could read a book together and share ideas that are important to them. A book club could point out their favourite passages in between meetings. A family could share the experience of reading together even while the children are away at university.
Another fascinating documentary I recently viewed was about Facebook. Mark Zuckerburg’s vision is that our social lives become all encompassing such that we live more open lives. We share what films we watch, what books we read, what music we listen to, which newspaper articles we look at. Again these social networking tools allow for more and more interaction. We are able to show the important paper we read on our most passionate issue with all our friends. I know I am much more likely to read an article or watch a video if a friend recommends it than if I have to search out content for myself. Perhaps the integration of social media into the reading experience could make the concept of choosing a book and reading it a more communal affair.
There is, I think, an underlying fear about digital community that it might replace real living community. I actually don’t think that this is a real danger, everybody knows that a coffee with a friend is infinitely more enjoyable and life enriching than a chat over Facebook. But for things like recommending videos and suggesting products and ideas to others I think that social networking is a more effective tool. If we are careful in how we use technology and how we let it shape us there is a real opportunity for a more communal approach to reading and other aspects of life. This does not mean we a have to stop relating physically to one another rather that perhaps our physical lives a more enriched because of the interconnectedness of modern life.
Another line of thinking about the digital publishing industry is how it affects our perceptions of age and newness. One of the contributors to the program mentioned that the believed that something that a physical book had over it’s digital equivalent was the fact that it cold get old. He suggested that the digital era only valued the new and had no appreciation for the ageing of a product. I think there is something beautiful about reading a book which you know has been handled by many others and enjoyed by many people through its life. I wonder, however, if actually this attitude places too much value in the material. To the critic the digital age is one where materialism is king and is centred around having the latest bit of technology. While this is in some ways true I wonder if the digital age has the possibility of doing the opposite. The digital world is becoming more and more about content. At the moment an iPad is very much seen as a flashy bit of tech. What if they become the staple though? What if the technology is only really important because of the content it gives us access to? I think this is the way the tech industry could be moving and as far as reading goes this could be very good news. Books will be loved not for their antique design but for the richness of the wisdom of the ages contained in the words they are written with. The joy of reading could come not from the fact that many hands have held the same paper but that many lives have been changed by the words of an author. It is possible that the digital age could push us away from a material view of books and towards a richer appreciation of the idea.
I find the idea of how technology will shape the world in years to come incredibly intriguing. I believe that there is a challenge and opportunity for us to shape the world for the better and create a more integrated, communal world which cares more about ideas than stuff and becomes a richer place. There are dangers to be avoided too but the possibilities are boundless and the challenge exciting.
