Does the Internet Make Print Books Obsolete? |
Bashing print books is now retro. It was another night of listening to yet another person tell me that print books were dead and libraries weren't going to be around anymore. It was probably the 27th person that week who had told me that my job was obsolete. This conversation tended to happen somewhere between the "Hello, nice to meet you" and the "So what do you do" parts of standard American small talk. But I was used to it. I was used to the constant belittling. "Books are dinosaurs." "Books are going the way of the 8-Track." It was the summer of 2005. As of this writing, it's 2019. Print books are doing fine. Communities still have their libraries. Lots of folks point to the abandoned bookstore as a sign that print books are dead. To be honest, I'm so tired of explaining the economics of the twenty-first century to business people that I now just smile and nod. I don't say the obvious: people buy books like crazy now; they just do it online, just like they also buy shoes, clothes, toilet paper, paperclips, office paper, new computers... Kmart did not go under because Americans stopped buying things. They just buy things electronically and have them delivered to their home. Same with bookstores. So here we are, almost 20% of the way into the twenty first century, and we're still beating the "books are dead" drum. Well, let's talk about why this is lazy thinking.
Electric guitars did not replace acoustic guitars. eBooks have not replaced print books. In fact, eBooks represent less than one-fifth of the book market. Most people, given the choice, still prefer to hold print books. Kids (the future!) prefer print books. And why wouldn't they? Afterall, iPhones aren't the first things books have had as competition. Not even close. Here is a rundown of the technologies that were supposed to ruin books. Spoiler: none of them did.
| Era | Technology | Made Books Obsolete because... |
| 2012 | Smartphones | ...kids don't read anymore |
| 2011 | eBooks | ...all books are now free |
| 2005 | ...the whole world is connected now | |
| 2000 | The Internet | ...the whole world is connected now |
| 1991 | CD-ROM | ...CDs are the future |
| 1985 | Nintendo | ...kids don't read anymore |
| 1980 | Computer Networks | ...data can be transmitted electronically |
| 1975 | Cable Television | ...kids don't read anymore |
| 1955 | Television | ...kids don't read anymore |
| 1925 | Radio | ...the whole world is connected now |
| 1880 | Phonograph | ...listening is easier than reading |
| 1870 | Daily Newspapers | ...books can't keep up with daily news |
Is that really true? Phonographs? Radio? Newspapers? Those were going to destroy books? Yes. Or so it seemed. Edison himself argued that the phonograph made reading quite obsolete, because who would labor to read, when one could set the phonograph machine on and lay down on the sofa? The development of the daily newspaper in the nineteenth century was also supposed to kill books. How could books--with their long publishing schedule, belabored editorial process--ever keep up with a newspaper that brought the most cutting edge information to house every morning? And what about the radio? Yes, the humble radio was anything but in the 1920s. RCA Radio was like Google. Everything we say today about "the world being connected like never before" was all being said in the 1920s about the radio.
We have been using the internet for a while now. It's not new anymore. People have googled answers to their questions since 1998. AOL was a thing in 1996. Kids have played computer games against each other over the internet for decades. JavaScript has made webpages interactive since 1995. IMDB has listed movies since 1990. Young adults today do not remember a world without the internet. And young adults who have grown up in the internet age read print books.
Let's cut to the chase: print books are just great inventions. Monks some two thousand years ago in Egypt developed the bound codex as a more portable alternative to scrolls. Books are so portable they can be lended, borrowed, gifted, or passed down. Books can transmit lots of information, and they can be carried. They can have indexes to easily find information. One can easily leaf through the contents, skipping here and there. Another great feature of print books is what they represent: an complete idea strung from introduction through exposition and examples to a conclusion. It's hard to imagine a better format for conveying a well-distilled idea. Books are still the best long format method for information transfer. Print books are tactile. They are fun to hold. It's almost like our hands were made for them. You can highlight them. You can write your thoughts in the margins. An important page can be dogeared. You can't do these things on a computer. Finally, we shouldn't underestimate the importance of authorship. Books in the free world have the name of the author stamped clearly on the cover. The author and his or her idea are linked forever in a book. Ideas can appear online, but we might not necessarily know who created it. A feature of online information is its anonymity; books, however, have clear authors.
The internet, I argue, has the potential to enhance print book circulation. Indeed, people are more connected now than ever, and this gives folks more opportunities to share book recommendations or favorite authors. It also allows people to reference great ideas found in books. The internet, like newspapers, radio, and television, has the opportunity to be yet another place to discuss books. And here we are. On the internet, discussing books. Find yourself a great book and curl up on your couch. Your mind will thank you. Updated August 2019 Back to the top of the page