Final Thoughts

Finishing up this book the author made a point that I can see happening in the future. He compared books in the future to how candles are now. Where candles used to be our only source of light at night but now that we have electricity candles have become more decoration. Comparing this to books was interesting to me because of how similar the two are. Books used to be our source of information and knowledge where as now we have the Internet and cell phones where we can look up everything we need to know. The author made the point that in the future books will become mere decorations and collectors items. This is something I could see happening, but to add to it I think that books will become more elaborate, like they were before the invention of the printing press. 

I think that I can see this happening because it's already a thing, when you go into someones house and they have books laid out on a coffee table or on a bookshelf that are purely decorative. No one goes home and looks at pictures of classic cars in a book bigger than a two year old. (and if you do you're much stronger than me, those books are heavy) These types of books are purchased purely to be decorations and make the homeowner look studious or to represent their interests. People also do this with normal books, we put them on display as a way to show how many we have or how much we read. I'm guilty of that, I like to have all my books in a place where they can be seen right when someone walks in. 

So the thought of printed books going in this direction isn't really a giant leap for me, instead it seems like this is where we're at right now. I don't think this is something we should be upset about though, the author makes the point that it's not the format that matters but the ideas inside the book. This is more important to me, if in the future books are all digital except for the elaborate, expensive ones that collectors own I would be sad because I would have to spend a ton of money but I would be happy to read eBooks. For me the format isn't as important as the ideas they possess and that ideas still get put out into the world. 

Print is Dead (Part 2)

I've been thinking a lot this past week about where the publishing industries is going. With book sales declining and more people moving to eBooks will the publishing industry die with the printed book? I agree with what one of the points that the author hit on in this book, that without publishers there wouldn't be anyone to separate the mediocre authors from the great ones. This is extremely important to me, I hate getting half way through a book and realizing that it is terrible. While this does happen with printed books, its much easier to publish a book on an e-reader format because of how many self publishing options there are. I think that publishers are so important because of how they can promote truly wonderful authors and get hype going around a new series or book. 

I found this idea so interesting because of how important I think publishers are, they keep authors grounded in the real world and help them to promote their books. Without publishers I don't think we would see very good writing or authors in the future. For that reason I don't think that the publishing industry will die out, instead I think it'll become a more exclusive job and will the more sought after in the future. With less positions available publishers will have more work to do and be considered more valuable to an author than they are now. 

While the publishing industry will have to change in the future to keep up with the ever changing technology, they will also become more exclusive because of how valuable they will become. I think they'll have to put more of a focus on eBooks and promoting to an Internet population and work to create an internet presence for authors. That's exactly why authors will need them more, it's hard to get a following online without help from someone who knows what they're doing. With technology changing how we interact with one another, publishers will need to keep up with the latest trends in order to stay relevant and helpful to authors. 

Print is Dead (Part 1)

Print is Dead was a fascinating read for me, it takes a look at how far print has come in such a short period of time. I think about this in contrast with many things that we have today and how they may start off big but quickly lose our attention. Diets are notorious for this kind of situation, everyone has that one friend that goes from diet to diet in an attempt to keep up with the newest trends or ideas circulating. Now comparing this with how quickly print took off after the printing press was invented is crazy to me. Our attention spans today are just so different, we're constantly introduced to new technology and products that we're not impressed with any for a significant amount of time. Instead we like or try a new product for a little while and then move on when the next best thing comes alone. 

With the printing press we were suddenly able to access greater amounts of knowledge and it was open to the public. The only thing that this could be compared to is the Internet, but now that we have the Internet should it cancel out books? This is a question that we've been asking all semester, with all this knowledge at our fingertips why should we use something so mundane like books? I think that the answer isn't something that we can answer on a mass scale. Instead, I think it's something that each person has to think about and decide what works best for them. For myself the answer lies somewhere in the middle, I will continue to answer simple questions and things by using the Internet but I will also continue to be an avid reader and love what books have to offer me. 

Going back to my first point, I wonder if something like the printing press happened during our time if it would change us the way it did back then. Or if it would be like our endless fads, something we would spend a little time on and then move on once something different came along. I think that with the Internet we use it for so many different things that we have become dependent on it, will the same thing thats happening to books happen to the Internet? In a couple hundreds year will we invent something better and that we can use anywhere and move on from the Internet? Or will we just change the Internet and shape it to fit what we want?

It's Complicated

I'm sitting hear talking with friends, browsing Facebook, and texting people. All of these social interactions are done with little effort on my part. In this digital age we live in it's easy to have a social life and still be disconnected from people. That's why it's so simple to just add people online even though you don't know them or add people that you've just met. Once you're "friends" online you can pretty much give up on any other social interactions unless you want to. We live in a time where your social life is gauged by how many people like your photos or how many friends you have. Not to undermine those things but is it really worth it? Do we really value people the same way when we don't have to put the effort into the relationship? 

In class our presenters for the day did an experiment, they set up fake profiles online and tried to add people in our class. While some didn't add them, others did, even though they had no idea who they were. This idea of becoming friends with someone you don't know is very intriguing. It's a trap almost everyone falls into, you meet someone at a party or through friends and then you add them on Facebook and then can stalk them until you know everything about them before or right after you've met. Our online profiles have become and extension of who we are and how we connect with others. I've done it, my friends have done it, even my parents have done it. But does that make it okay? We're losing connections to people and aren't really getting to know anyone because we think who they portray themselves to be online is their genuine self.

A few months ago a friend of mine posted online about how she wished that people would be more open about their problems or setbacks on Facebook, instead of just posting happy things all the time. While this seems like a good idea, it still doesn't help people to connect and talk about real things with people. Instead it gives everyone more of an opportunity to cop out of actually caring, they can just like the status or comment about how they hope things get better. If we really want to see things change we need to get offline and go out to make genuine connections with people. In order to show we care we need to invest time in people and relationships.   

Writing on the Wall (part 2)

I've been thinking a lot since we did this reading about what it means to have a close group of friends. I've always seen my friendships as being equal and the same between everyone I knew. But now that I have started to look at these friendships closer I can see how different each one is. Dunbar's numbers for our connections to people were 5 intimate friends, 10 close friends, and 150 general friends. At first I though these numbers were ridiculous and pulled out of nowhere. However, having reflected on this for a couple of weeks and looked at how many people I talk to on a daily basis I can see this numbers being real. 

I always think about MySpace and how in middle school I moved someone off my top 8 and made them number 10. When doing this I didn't really think they would notice because we weren't really good friends, I was wrong. They freaked out and lost their mind. I don't think we talked after that. This reaction seems a little intense to me at the time because social media was a new thing and I didn't realize how important these connections were to some people. Now I think of friends as a fluid thing, they come and go. At one point someone may be considered an intimate friend but then they may get busy and fade into my close friend circle. While this isn't how it is for everyone I do think that it is easy to move people in and out of each group as you change and grow. 

I think that a lot of our views on friendship and intimacy are warped by social media and movies. We are constantly bombarded by these images of how life and relationships in general are supposed to be. While some things may be accurate, others are not. Being friends on social media doesn't mean you actually know someone. You probably only see the good things that they post about, not the bad. This gives people a false sense of security in different friendships. This is causing us to lose touch with one another. While you may think that you have 10 close friends because you keep up with their Facebook they may think you're a stranger because a lot of people have lost the ability to have real, open conversations and relationships with one another. 

The Writing on the Wall

Can the written word still unite people? 

I think that this question is one that we should ask often. A lot of the time I react more to something I have read versus something that I just see online. I think that this is because of how much effort goes into reading an article or blog about something. When you just watch a quick YouTube video or clip on Facebook it's easy to feel an emotion right then and maybe share the video but then move on. However, when you read something you get an emotional connection to what the author is saying. Also you can get so much more out of a well written article or piece about any topic. In a video you can only see and hear what the producer wants you to but in writing you can infer things and read between the lines. 

In our day and age people aren't getting their news from published works or written articles, they turn on their TVs, open their laptops, or tune their radio stations in. Now we don't have this overwhelming amount of knowledge and news being spread through written word. For that reason I think that it's harder to have the written word still unite people, it's easier to have the media or movies unite us. While this is the new norm I don't think it's something we, as a society, should be proud of. I would love to see the day when news is read and spread through the written word instead of through media. I think that if this happened we would see a lot more action-taking place instead of this false sense of action that forms of media encourage. 

When the written word is utilized effectively I think that it can unite people in many different ways. I can think of so many things that I've read online that have gotten either a lot of heat or a lot of praise because of the way it is worded. There is purpose when you're writing something online, when speaking it's easy to let your words get away from you. When writing it's hard to post something or say something and then try to say you didn't mean it. I think that this effort makes the written word more believable and thus easier to unite behind. 

The Book: The Life Story of a Technology (pgs. 87-158)

This reading was very interesting to me as I am a history major and a writing minor so this was touching on both my interests. These chapters looked back at the history of writing and showed how it has evolved and grown into what it is today. I particularly like the first part of this reading, when the author, Nicole Howard, is explaining how far authorship has come since its inception. At that time being an author wasn't something your were supposed to broadcast or make known. Today, we look at authors and give them a celebrity status and praise them for their ability to write or craft a novel. This drastic change was fascinating to me; this shift shows just how much we have grown to respect authors and understand how hard what they do is.

These chapters also showed how the price of books has changed over the years. It used to be based on how many resources were used to produce it. This meant that books would be very expensive and hard to come by unless you had that kind of money. Looking at today and how people get mad or upset if a book is $15 is crazy to think about. While books have become more important to us they have seemingly lost their value at the same time. Now, since it is so common to have them they are not worth as much in the eyes of the public. Whereas if someone from the Renaissance came to our time they would be shocked at how inexpensive our books are. 

This difference in price can be looked at just like any other good, the harder it is to make the more expensive it'll be. Today it just isn't as hard to make books and mass produce them. However by looking at how we glorify authors now you would think that we would be willing to pay more to own their works. We don't though. We want all our books to be easily accessible and cheap, while a person who lived around the Renaissance time would just be happy to afford a book, no matter whom it was written by. This contrast is interesting to me because it shows how as a society we have changed what is valuable to us.   

The Name of the Rose

When we sat down to watch The Name of the Rose I thought that it would be another boring movie that the professor really liked but didn't make sense to the rest of us at all. However, this after watching it I realized how important movies like these are to us as a culture. Living in the 21st century it is easy to take for granted all the access to literature and knowledge that we have. By watching movies like this we are reminded just how valuable this knowledge is and how it contributes to our everyday life. This movie had so many different ideas packed into it, for me I took away the idea of how important books and knowledge are to us and how they can impact our lives in different ways. 

I particularly liked how in the movie the young apprentice, Adso, didn't understand why William (Sean Connery) was so obsessed with finding the books and saving them. He had to grow to understand why this type of knowledge could save people, such as the village girl from living such destitute lives. I think that this is an important lesson that we can take away from the film. That without the knowledge that we have come to rely on we would slip back into the "Dark Ages". This is not to say that all our knowledge is necessary or very important but it is pivotal to how far we have come and how far we hope to go. 

Another reason why this film is so impactful is all the symbolism that it has packed in. It shows the depravity of man through the deformities in the monks, all the issues they have can be attributed to how deprived they are of knowledge and books. While in contrast we see how important knowledge is by looking at how healthy William and Adso are throughout the film. This contrast is obvious but is easily skipped over because it doesn't seem as important. For me this shows how we as people could take two paths through life. We can either become deformed or warped by going through life without seeking knowledge or being afraid of it. Or we can go through life being happy and health by feeding our minds with new knowledge and ideas.

Kaylee's Responses

Interview Questions

1.     Generally, do you think of yourself as someone who likes to read?

 Yes, just not often.

2.     When you read for pleasure, what do you read?

 Fiction

3.     About how many hardbound books do you own, and of these how many would you classify as either “literary” or “literature?”

 50, all of them. 

4.     In the past year, have you read a novel from cover to cover?

 Yes

5.     When you sit down to read a book, how long do you read before stopping?

 Unitl I fall asleep.

6.     How much time do you spend on social media each day?

 All day (it's apart of my job) 

7.     How much time do you spend on your cell phone each day (talking, texting, using Apps, searching the internet)?

 8 or so hours

8.     How much time do you spend either studying and/or working each day?  How much of this time is spent reading?

 9 hours

Very little is spent reading. 

9.     How much time do you spend on the internet each day?

 All day

10. How much time do you spend watching television or streaming video each day? 

 4-6 hours

11. How much time do you spend totally unconnected from all media technology each day?

 When I'm sleeping or an 1-2 before hand. 

12. What are your favorite forms of relaxation and entertainment?

 Going the the theater

13. Complete the following sentences: “Reading is  . . .”

 Fun

14. Complete the following sentence: “My favorite book is . . .”

 Brave New World

15. Complete the following sentence: “The word “literary” refers to . . .”

 The written word

16. Complete the following sentence: “Reading poetry is like . . .”

       Reading bite size books