Skip to content


The Future of the Book is the Future of Society

The Future of the Book is the Future of Society

By Bob Stein

http://www.futureofthebook.org/blog/archives/2013/03/the_future_of_the_book_is_the.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+ifbook+(if:book)

Snippets

“The Future of the Book

As someone who made the leap from print to electronic publishing over thirty years ago people often ask me to expound on the “future of the book.” Frankly, I can’t stand the question, especially when asked simplistically.  For starters it needs more specificity. Are we talking 2 years, 10 years or 100 years?  And what does the questioner mean by “book” anyway? Are they asking about the evolution of the physical object or its role in the social fabric?”

The Future of the Book is the Future of Society

“The medium, or process, of our time — electric technology — is reshaping and restructuring patterns of social interdependence and every aspect of our personal life. It is forcing us to reconsider and re-evaluate practically every thought, every action, and every institution formerly taken for granted. Everything is changing: you, your family, your education, your neighborhood, your job, your government, your relation to “the others. And they’re changing dramatically.” Marshall McLuhan, The Medium is the Message

Following McLuhan and his mentor Harold Innis, a persuasive case can be made that print played the key role in the rise of the nation state and capitalism, and also in the development of our notions of privacy and the primary focus on the individual over the collective. Social reading experiments and massive multi-player games are baby steps in the shift to a networked culture. Over the course of the next two or three centuries new modes of communication will usher in new ways of organizing society, completely changing our understanding of what it means to be human.”

Read more:

http://www.futureofthebook.org/blog/archives/2013/03/the_future_of_the_book_is_the.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+ifbook+(if:book)

Stephen

0 Shares

Posted on: March 22, 2013, 6:57 am Category: Uncategorized

5 Responses

Stay in touch with the conversation, subscribe to the RSS feed for comments on this post.

Continuing the Discussion