How Is Technology Changing the Way We Read?
There’s been a lot of disruption but is it for better or worse?
For several millennia reading was limited to a very select few. Books, scrolls and parchments were written by hand and were both prized and rare. Only a small percentage of people were able to read.
Then, in the 15th century, that began to change when Johannes Guttenberg invented the printing press. Literacy rates began to rise but progress was slow. However, the Industrial Revolution and the ability to mass-produce paper soon changed that. Education, news, and the rise of popular novels and literature soon became mainstream, leading to a correlating growth in things like libraries and bookshops. People discovered the joy of the written word.
The latest change in reading and literary consumption has now been underway for a couple of decades and it threatens to be as huge a disruption as any before. The internet and devices such as e-readers, smartphones and tablets have been dramatically altering the way we consume words.
The ability to access information and the written word has suddenly become more ubiquitous across the planet. This is a trend that continues to grow as more get access to the internet and mobile devices.
