What are some changes that text went through between the manuscript and digital eras?
Back before the printing press was invented, copies were made by scribes. It must have been some seriously rigorous work to copy texts word for word. I can't help but refer back to the bible in this circumstance. The Bible was passed on by being hand written time and time again, and it is the most unchanging piece of literature in the world today. If mistakes were made, scribes either had to start from the beginning or find innovative ways of fixing their copies.
After the introduction of the printing press, the world as we knew it, changed. Copies of texts were created at much faster rates. Instead of hiring scribes, people were hired to to work the new technology. Copies were made with fewer errors, and if there were errors they were easier to correct. After the implementation of the printing press the cost of reproduction decreased and production was moving at a much faster rate.
What are some of the main characteristics of the "user" as opposed to the traditional "reader?"
In the text it says that, "The reader plays text as a musician plays an instrument." I really enjoyed this simile, especially since I consider myself an avid reader. What I got from the text was that a two readers can read the same text and get two entirely different interpretations out of it. We find this to be true especially of poetry interpretations. Not to drop too much biblical references into this blog post, but this is also true of the Bible. Time and time again I have seen people interpret the same passages as different things. It's very interesting to see how people can take texts and apply them to mean different things to their own lives.
There's a quote at the bottom of page 98 that I relate to completely that reads, " Web users don't like to read...They want to keep moving and clicking." -- Jakob Nielson
This quote reminds me of the "Is Google Making us Stupid?" article. Both of these things greatly reflect the culture of today's generation. We are all about instant gratification. Personally, I can't read through online articles to save my life. I almost always lose my concentration by the third paragraph. I can't decide if I think that this impedes our generation or not. Any thoughts?
Diana Neff
I am totally in the same boat when reading online texts. How is one supposed to concentrate when there are animated advertisements and links to other, possibly more interesting articles decorating the page you are supposed to be concentrating on?
ReplyDeleteI think this problem is impeding our generation. We are all about what is happening NOW; scrolling text at the bottom of our news channels, our Facebook feeds are set to "Most Recent" or "Most Popular", and Twitter- well, I think that medium speaks for itself.
Maybe the problem IS the medium. We use computers for just about everything these days, and the birth of the iPad and tablet readers only advances my point. As McLuhan prophesied, we are using new media to communicate old messages. How are we expected to read on a medium that can stimulate us in so many other ways?
Diana, I completely share your sentiments. I feel like a have the attention span of a goldfish when I am reading online.
ReplyDeleteBen, what if there were more one-function mediums like Kindle? Do you think we could be more productive as an online culture.