Ebooks, what are you doing?!

Steven Johnson brings words of doom and gloom for the book, the physical book, as we know it.  In this article, Johnson discusses how ebooks are and will change the way people read and write.  As a future librarian, I find this topic fascinating because it will change the way I approach my job.  And potentially the way I relate to books on a personal level.

Johnson talks about how "print books have remained a kind of game preserve for the endangered species of linear, deep-focus reading" in a world full of electronic distractions like hyperlinks, smart phones, iPads, email, and our decreasing attention spans.  However, with the rise of the ebook, book reading may conform to these distractions and become yet another quick activity that happens between checking email, sending a text, and updating a Facebook status.

Additionally, Johnson writes that "Reading books will go from being a fundamentally private activity -- a direct exchange between author and reader -- to a community event, with every isolated paragraph the launching pad for a conversation with strangers around the world."  This is made possible through the same channels that provide distraction: hyperlinks, social networks, social tagging.  I have to say, though, that while this idea of a global community around a certain text seems a little idealistic, it's pretty cool.  This aspect makes me optimistic about inspiring more people to read, to expand their literary tastes, and think critically about literature.  I also wonder if it's easier to become distracted this way too: you find a passage that you don't understand, so you look to see what other people have said about it.  Then you look to see what other books are cited, then you look at other comments, then other citations, and five minutes later, you're very far away from what you were reading.

Ebooks may also change the way people write.  If books are purchased by chapter, this type of micropayment system will ensure that books are written with chapters to be read individually.  This can work in some contexts but, as Artistotle said, the whole is different from the sum of its parts.

I'm not sure how much of this will come to pass.  It's interesting, and some parts of it sound beneficial to the way people relate to text.  I don't see this happening anytime soon because the people in my generation are quite tied to books.  With younger generations who grow up with ebooks, who knows?

But that's fine, I'll still have a job.