Technology Sweeps

One of the things I am afraid of is turning into one of those people who can't handle new things. I complain every time Facebook changes its layout, fret over the design of iTunes and how it no longer has colors and so is less pretty, hated Vista when it came out, and have some problems with Windows 7 in trying to fix it when there are problems. These are signs, to me, that I could get stuck technologically -- stuck on things like a certain kind of computer, or a way of living -- and end up clinging to things that have past.

In a word, I'm afraid I'm going to end up like my mother -- unable to even deal with Facebook or how to find her email.

So when it comes to books, I've begun to wonder if I could be stuck in a place about the printed word. The market right now for ebooks is smaller then you might think considering how much to-do there is about it. 10 - 15% of book sales come from ebook sales. Small -- but significant considering the market until the Kindle came out was about 0. As more people get ereaders, the market is likely to increase.

People say that ebooks and the Kindle could stay where they are -- people cling to the printed word, the pages still fresh and crisp with that specific new book smell -- but think about the fact that these people are our age. These are the last of the generation who grew up in a time when technology hadn't permeated the publishing market. Its like the people who said that the movies wouldn't catch on, because there was nothing like live theater.

No, there is nothing like live theater, but that didn't stop the movie industry, and from that the TV industry from flourishing. Nor did it stop live theater from continuing to exist.

I hope, and believe, that the printed page will continue to exist even as the market changes. But admission of technology's advances does seem to skew towards a new kind of reading experience -- one that exists in digital pages, libraries carried around in your pocket and the increase of power in the ebook.

In psychology we talk about habituation -- the fact that people can get used to anything -- and its true. I no longer complain about my Facebook profile having developed seven different new pages, a design that I think is less clean then the one that came before -- but merely accept that technology moves forward, and Facebook, Livejournal, or even Blogger, changing their designs and layouts is a sign that they are not stagnant, they are moving forward too.

So how do I move forward?

I'm buying a Kindle.