Obstacles to change

So a friend of mind sends me a link from the BBC website the other day, and it is a piece by Bill Thompson titled: Cultural past of the digital age, Do Books and film have a place in the modern world.

As one starts to read the article, you get the feeling that this is going to be one of those "grumpy old man" features set out to chasten modern day technology and all that comes with it.

The following paragraph is really where the article begins:

"Of course we will adapt, as we always do. There will be a market for old-fashioned formats, as there is for vinyl albums, and in fifty years time there may even be a comeback for the 'chemical film' movement, making prints from old negatives. Film is not the only analogue medium that is changing as we look."

Well Mr. Thompson if old fashion formats do reappear we can start by laying the blame squarely on your kind of thinking. I am very perturbed by the pundits and commentators who are always set on hindering progress or advancement every opportunity they get. If Vinyl is not dead somebody ought to kill it. There I said it!

I am sorry but aside from the nostalgia feeling that the so called generation X attach to this format of music, vinyl is clutter. Yes it is also true that the recording sessions on vinyl were more romantic (for lack of a better word), in that if you listen carefully you can hear the sounds in the background recording noises in the studio sessions. Indeed the 60's and 70's history was narrated on vinyl. But stop! Please let the memories be. Look forward to the better technologies yet to be born. Hey you can't make progress walking backwards.

He goes on to say:-

"… I will speak out for a future of screen-based literature or damn the printed book as a primitive form of information distribution soon to be consigned to the landfill of history I fear they will be disappointed, since I love and cherish books in all their many forms and formats, whether literary novels or technical manuals. And while I can see reasons why some types of book, like directories or manuals, will move to the screen simply because they can be used more efficiently and updated more easily, I don't see the novel going digital any time soon."

No body doubts your affinity to books. I myself feel the same way too. But you have got to understand that the way in which you consume your information, in this case books, is being incrementally transformed by the day. The lifestyle and context (cultural, political, economic and technological etc) within which you grew up back in the day are very different to the present time. In business schools there is this classic adage that is always floating around especially within marketing that says: "A kid in New York, Paris or London has more in common with a kid in Singapore, Hong Kong or Tokyo than they do with their own parents." (Or something to that effect, as it does get modified depending on where you are and who is using it.)
This means that the demographic has spread its tentacles and is doing things that you only dreamed of when you were of that age. The world has gotten smaller. The idea that you understand the present cultural context and that you can dictate what is to be and what isn’t to be is like me telling you about the Beatles or Bob Dylan. Yes I have heard their music but I wasn't there and that is not my time.

Given the technology available today and the possibility for the future, publishers can actually say with great confidence, "if children do not go to libraries, or book stores to borrow or purchase books, then we shall bring the books to them.”

To me the whole idea of clinging on to a traditional format that is on a steady decline just for the sake of doing so is ludicrous. *

Flashforward a decade or so when less and less people are reading text format hard copy books you will see a scenario in which the world will be facing an environmental challenge of how to dispose of this material. Burn it? No I tell you what will happen. They will probably shift the books as a donation to some rural part of Africa or Asia because they will "need the books."

This of course sounds very altruistic until you consider the fact that maybe this part of the world will be better served by getting them to use the better technologies that are in place. Sort of like the traditional telecoms companies going to Africa with the sole aim of investing in land line telephone services. They are looking to lay down the infrastructure (copper wires and build exchanges) so that the population can get access to telephones. Somehow they do not figure that mobile technology has already transformed how people perceive communication and land lines have been or are being rendered obsolete. But I digress from my original point.

Under the title Real World, Mr Thompson states the following

"Although we may want books, we may not be able to afford them as the digital world impacts on traditional publishing."

Then he goes on to state the already well known facts about how publishing and media houses work. How they rely on the blockbusters to keep them in the game until the next year. The thing that Mr. Thompson does not seem to have quite grasped, is the significance and impact of user generated content. And no I am not referring only to YouTube or Myspace.

Fact! The Newspaper died a death a decade or so ago and what we are seeing now are the remnants of it as it dwindles and fades into obscurity. Have you heard of the newspaper publishers who, when considering strategies on how to grow readership and subscribers, they decide to target ethnic minorities and other groups with the aim of boosting the numbers? FYI you are betting on a horse called ignorance and it cannot win this race.

The strategy is short term but what happens in the long term? The newspaper industry is the same industry that was very reluctant to embrace the internet back in the day. And very little has changed since that period. Yes musical chairs has transpired but it is still the same crop of head honchos. Love him or loathe him it seems Rupert Murdoch is the only person with his finger on the pulse.

Anyone who refutes this fact is looking to have an irrational argument about emotions and feelings. Me no have none of that here, so thanks for stopping by.

"...My daughter returned from a school trip to Poland not with a collection of photos but with four hours of video, and she cut it into a twenty-minute movie over a weekend, using the tools that come provided with every Mac laptop."

Your daughter did this and you still think that you have a counter argument to buck the trend? My oh my

Granted towards the end Mr. Thompson seems to be confirming the inevitable and is looking for a way to retract,

"We are living at a time of great change, and in this revolutionary period it is simply not possible to treat any one aspect of life in isolation. The future of books is inevitably tied up with the wider questions of cultural expression, the structure of our daily lives and of course the shape of the market."

The above statement is a contradiction to your whole point of view. And then you start to get emotional and irrational.

But in the end, whatever technology may offer us, we will make our decisions as humans, living in the physical world, with aesthetic considerations sometimes trumping the hard-edged practical ones.

"I still write with a Mont Blanc fountain pen, a gift from my children that - as my daughter pointed out at the time - cost more than a PDA. It does less, but means much more."

This reeks of sanctimony, the whole….”Back in my days, life was oh! so much better than today…” and all that rah! rah! So I won't go there.

The article concludes with the following:

"I suspect the same will apply to the book in years to come, and we will continue to choose them for reasons that defy the market but reinforce what it means to be human."

Another characteristic trait of human beings, in addition to reasoning and intelligence, is that we adapt to change when change is necessary. We know when enough is enough and it's time to move on.

By the way, I am in the process of getting rid of all my CD's because I know that hanging on to something like that just for the sake of it is ridiculous.

It becomes very clear that your article is about nostalgia aimed at that generation X, and so cannot be of any use to the progressive argument. I am sorry if I come across as rude, it is not my intention but this article is maleficent and only serves as a negative.

Now I shall retire to my humble abode where I shall bring out my vinyl’s and put on some Sam Cooke, A Change is Gonna Come.


*The statement that the books are on a steady decline is unfounded and is based more on a hunch