Books Vs Facebook

We live in an incredibly fast-paced technological world. Our business day, our social lives and our shopping habits involve?Google,?Facebook?and?Amazon, sometimes engaging these sites several times a day. We may play?Wordle?on a bus going to Walmart, check our phones for the?weather, flick through?Instagram, bid on?eBay, scroll through?Twitter, or even watch a series on?Netflix?in a line at?Home Depot. Checking our?Outlook?email, searching for a restaurant with?Google maps,?following?Fox News?to see the latest in?Ukraine,?reviewing a report in?Google Docs?for work, virtual viewing an apartment on?Airbnb?or?Rightmove,?checking?NFL?scores?on?BBC sport?in?Costco,?clicking up a?calculator?on our phones to work out our expenses, responding to a?LinkedIn?message, listening to?Spotify?in?Walgreens,?checking the?Dow Jones?when in?Wells Fargo,?watching?TikTok?or?Sky News,?checking the?bitcoin price?or your?UPS tracking number– all of these are daily occurrences for most of us on a daily basis.?

Have you read a book lately? A real one, not an?e-book?on your?Kindle. Holding a book can be a pleasurable experience all on its own. Folding each page can be such a rewarding process; even the smell can be wonderful. Libraries are magical, mysterious places. All of the technological marvels above are so new to the human race. For centuries, knowledge, stories, culture, religious messages and family secrets were all passed down through the ages in the form of books. Millions of people have flicked through the paper pages of their favourite newspaper every morning for more than a hundred years, keeping themselves well-informed on all sorts of subjects. As amazing as all of the technology is, as powerful as the algorithms are for marketing, and as incredible an impact the supercomputers we have in our pockets, the tragedy is the death of the printed word.?

When Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press in 1440, it truly changed the world forever. For the first time on planet Earth, ideas could be recorded and transported globally. His invention revolutionised society by standardising language, spreading ideas, increasing literacy, and growing the printing industry. Words became powerful, and books became power.

For so many people and for so many years, a visit to a bookstore was an almost religious experience. The art of browsing was a superb way to spend hours on a rainy afternoon and is far more interesting than watching?YouTube?videos in?Starbucks. Reading the?Daily Mail?or the?New York Times?on your?iPad?is just not quite the same experience. Looking at?maps?on your phone cannot compare with folding out a huge paper map in the car.

Sometimes we have to turn the clock backwards in order to make some progress. Just as people are listening to vinyl records again instead of downloading music on their devices, maybe there will be a ‘dead tree revival’, and a new renaissance of the printed word will come.