Don't Write the Eulogy of Print Just Yet

 

      Increasingly we have experienced a sense of conversion from print to digital. With the advent of Nooks and Kindles at the same time as book stores like Borders going bankrupt, there seems to be a direct causation. While it is true that these events simultaneously occurred, I don't think that e-readers have crumbled the institution of the printed book.
      As Michel Foucault explores in his essay "What is an Author?", the printed word had its beginnings in exclusivity. Not only was literacy uncommon in the Middle Ages, but early books had to be made painstakingly, either by hand or with early forms of the printing press. Books were valuable and one of a kind. Although they became more accessible with later, faster versions of the printing press, they retained their sense of importance through the author function. To be well-versed in a certain area of thought, there were established authors and their publications to read. Today this tradition continues, not only with the reading of the "classics", but also with the idea in general that certain authors are experts in their particular subject. Why is it that professors assign specific readings in their classes? Could the same information be learned from other, lesser known sources? Although the answer may be yes, the fact remains that authors and their works are assigned hierarchical levels of importance.
      In the same manner, the media through which information is conveyed can be arranged in an order of reliability. In comparison to print, the digital world of information sharing can often be counterproductive. Simply the instantaneous nature of the internet and its countless contributors can allow it to be characterized as an unreliable source. And although e-readers are not necessarily as fickle as your average internet blog, it is true that they lack the sense of isolation that the printed word provides. While reading  a physical book, one is confined in general to the intended information. But on an e-reader, there is the possibility of downloading other publications and even playing games, which may distract from the reading experience altogether.
      The inferiority of both the internet and the e-reader therefore reinforce the importance and exclusivity of the printed book. Not only does a physical book usually cost more than its digital counterparts, but also more work goes into its production. Instead of the digital world driving out the world of print, I hypothesize instead that it has made the book itself more valuable to the reader.