Ebook Convergence Culture

Birkerts provides three effects that will occur as a result of moving away from the printed word to the electronic media. The first effect is the language erosion. He explains the reader that transition from books will lead to the “complexity and distinctiveness of verbal and written communication, which are deeply bound to transaction of print literacy, will gradually be replaced by a more telegraphic sort of plainspeak” (9). In the future our language will start to become more simple and dumb. Whereas, by reading books and printed materials people are able to dig more depth and understand and imagine the contents. But, soon this will start to disappear as people will no longer be able to understand the complex language of the literature and intelligence level of people will start to decrease. The second effect of electronic media is the flattening of historical perspectives. This means that due to the electronic media the history will start to recede because the “printed page itself is a link” and when this link is broken the past will gradually diminish (10). Birkerts explains the audience that the past is best represented in the books and libraries. Therefore, moving away from the printed word means moving away from the past and its history. The last effect is the waning of the private self. Birkerts worries that in the future people will forget how to live because of the electronic

In this society that is gradually becoming increasingly dependent on technology, will literature slowly disappear from the minds of the population? This is the question that Ray Bradbury’s novel, Fahrenheit 451, attempts to answer. In this book, he describes a hypothetical world in which the population not only avoids reading, but has made owning books an unthinkable crime, with all books discovered burned, along with the houses of those who hoarded them. In this dystopian future created by Bradbury, the beauty that is literature has been replaced in society by television programs and radio stations. This reveals Bradbury’s obvious fear that modern technology would completely replace books- a legitimate concern to have. In 2015, the value of books differ between groups of people. The disadvantage of this is that books provide the readers opportunity to allow their imaginations to run wild, something that television and radio never could. Fahrenheit 451 addresses the problem and fear of overwhelming technology through its fictional world, which shows what would happen should people render literature completely useless through the use of television and radios.

Overall, Jenkins is interested on the impact convergence has on popular culture, however, considering the process of convergence of modes, he recognizes that popular and political cultural are beginning to blur. Like cultural, both new and old media alike are begging to blur and evolve, while delivery technologies become obsolete and get replaced. An example would be the replacement of floppy disk to CDs and more commonly now, the use of USBs, Jenkins describes this as “The Black Box Fallacy”, where media combine as one

Do you control your technology, or does it control you? Written in 2002, M.T. Anderson’s Feed shows the world as a technology based society much like the one we live in today. The characters in this book use it an internet like service called the feed to communicate with each other, buy things, and even go to school. The feed in the story not only serves as the main point of conflict, but also symbolizes Anderson’s fear of the future in an age where technology is on the rise.

The alluring idea of being able to access so many books at the click of a button is enough to drive any book-worm crazy. The next step is to choose which God-given device to pick. The futuristic and tempting slogan on the Kindle website reads, “It’s not screen time - it’s book time.” On the Nook

Technology has become an increasingly advanced as well as an important aspect in modern society. That is why Ray Bradbury, the author of Fahrenheit 451, was right to fear books and other printed sources would be replaced by modern technology. Technology has contributed to the significant loss of time children spend reading. Additionally, eBooks have replaced print books. Moreover, television and radio have replaced newspapers as the dominant source of information.

Most people would rather look on the internet instead of read a book. This is similar in the book because they rely on technology more than books. Many of today’s technologies were predicted by Ray Bradbury. For example, Montag owns a television that takes up three walls. people do have these, and even average people sometimes have very large TV’s. Some other examples are voice activated commands, all types of communication devices, and earbuds or as he called them, “seashells”.

Technology is viewed in today’s society as an essential tool for Americans. It allows us to quickly share our ideas with other people and learn about any and everything. Many people use their devices as a source of entertainment. However, there are still some people in our country who use phones and computers as a tool only and still prefer books for knowledge and reading. Ray Bradbury, who is the author of Fahrenheit 451, likes the idea of technology as a way of accessing information but discourages other uses such as spending an obsessive amount of time playing videogames. In Fahrenheit 451 Bradbury uses the motif of technology to point out that our devices can never replace our human love of and need for nature and personal interaction.

As humans, we have always looked to develop our environment solely based on tangible content, all done without any dividing barriers. However, throughout recent history, we have been at the forefront of a complete shift in the way that our society functions as a whole. Our newly founded dependency on technology has been more than evident, with it now taking up a substantial chunk out of our daily lives. What once was done exclusively with just pen and paper now has taken the form of something so much more complex and seemingly infinite. As a result of this, our reliance on physical text has transformed into an interest in something much less personal, adding further to the convenience and appeal that books offered. Into the Electronic Millennium by Sven Birkerts dives into this idea head on,

Things that used to be printed out on paper such as newspapers and articles can all be found digitally. There is not hope for the things of the past like that. It is only a matter of time before there won’t be any paper books. They will all be digital. A much acclaimed critic writes, “One has only to look at

The prevalent of e-books creates numerous platforms for the marketplace of books. For example, when Steve Jobs announced the launch of the iPad iBooks, it created an enormous opportunity for publishers.

Now days with the rise of digital technology many physical items such as pen and paper are slowly being replaced by computers and smart phones. But is this really a good thing? I read books and of course so do many other people in this class and around the globe. But since the creation of ‘e-readers’ more and more people have been converting to the technology based side of reading. Although technology is slowly becoming more predominant in this era we should not rely on it to always entertain and keep us occupied.

“Ripe for digital destruction,” (A Textbook) were words of the late Steve Jobs referring to the enormous potential for the textbooks industry. He believed the textbook market to be worth an estimated 8 billion dollars in the U.S. alone. His vision was to lessen the burden of carrying heavy textbooks around, while also offering them as a free feature with the iPad. He wanted to change the culture of textbooks forever.

In this essay I am going to have an in-depth look at the question “what is digital media convergence”, not just a simple answer of what it is because the question may seem simple but in digital media convergence there are several underlying convergences which make up the whole idea, in this essay I am going to try and cover what these are and what effects technologically, socially and culturally they are having on us.

One of the significant drawbacks of e-books is the issue of compatibility. Various researchers argue that most e-books are not compatible with a variety of software. For instance, a book may be readable on a Kindle device and fail to display its contents in a different device due to compatibility issues. This makes it hard for readers to access all books. It also poses a challenge for readers as all software require a constant update. This is also a major inconvenience for readers as the books they purchase an older version of the software may become obsolete over time, and thus, require them to make a new purchase (Lai and Li 458). Notably, as much as the issue of compatibility describes the disadvantage of using an e-book, it presents a benefit of using the traditional books. This is because the reader will never encounter compatibility issues upon purchasing a hard copy book. Such a book can last for a long