Books have been thought of as texts that have texts that don’t change as fast or as quickly. In the book this is referenced as the text being there the next day as it was yesterday because in that volume or edition of the book the text will stay the same from day to day without change. It is hard to change the text on analog books once the book has been published and copies have begun to be released. The only way to change the ideas of the book is to release an updated version of the book with vol.2 other variations that say that this is a sequel with fresh ideas.
An exception to this would be newspapers as newspapers can come in daily so it can be published daily and the text will not be changed on the newspaper that is on possession. A new newspaper can come in the next day with different text. Right now, newspapers are electronic and can be updated as new information is released instead of writing multiple articles for newspapers we can keep it to just one article that is updated whenever information is released. Digital Newspapers can also be read by anyone anywhere in the world which is an advantage over physical newspapers. No shipment time is going to be required as the web is fast and quick.
Books are in a state where they can exist without being physical. Books can be electronic, and ideas can be preserved through the web if the web stays intact and the media that the book exists on doesn’t go extinct like the flash related books that only existed on flash player that has been discontinued on December 31, 2020. Otherwise, books do not have a chance of being obsolete in this manner as the books that have been lost through the discontinuation of flash are being restored by people wishing to archive these types of books. Each book is being archived with the medium being preserved or the books having new mediums. In Borsuk “The book will not become obsolete with new reading platforms but rather will change and develop new incarnations and readerships; it will continue to serve certain kinds of literary needs and desires”(Borsuk, 221) As new mediums come in more books will come in about that medium whether in the traditional formats or the less traditional formats. Any other formats that come out would be seen as less traditional formats of the book and would be seen as something new and exciting.
In the Book by Borsuk we have seen the book talk about how the book is supposed to be an intimate experience between the reader and the book itself in physical form. It used to be that there would be book talks among peers after reading the book but in the future, we will start to see a shift in the opposite direction. Books will become more social as that gives an advantage to Digital Publishing and that kind of experience cannot be replicated in traditional print books. With the program Perusall we are seeing how this type of medium for Books would function, but it is not perfect and it could be better as the system utilizes AI to generate the annotations and comments that others have made. The developer of the reader can decide to limit and let the AI filter the number of annotations that appear onscreen so that the reader does not become overwhelmed and frustrated with the experience. How social can a book get and what is the perfect balance between what works and what doesn’t? The best way to deal with this is to let the AI filter the number of annotations being seen and include a search box for annotations and web-based content. For example, when a word is highlighted, someone can touch or right click on the word and then they can get the word auto filled in the search box which searches up the word. Other options include annotations containing that word will also pop up in the box which allows the reader to discuss with other people about what they are reading in that moment. Other options in this eBook would include the ability to turn annotations on or off and filter the number of annotations being seen. Social media connectivity will also be a connection in this book as the book is becoming more social there will be more features related to social media being involved within the reader itself as having it within the search function and highlighting functions will be too overwhelming.
Other social functions involving the book will exist outside the experience itself. Such as how books get recommended as books have different mediums that come out the categories that books exist within changes. Because, it is an entirely different experience. The way books are recommended will change based on the popularity and demand of each book experience. Including books that I am not going to be mentioning like Brain Chip Mind Warping Technology. All the experiences will have the ability to be recommended since there will be more experiences to choose from there will be more choice. With more choice means more flexibility and user control. If they want books in a VR experience they can have it.
The changes in the medium also fluctuate based on consumer demand. In Borsuk, “from scroll to bound folio, books have indeed evolved. And like all things subject to evolution they can face extinction.” (Borsuk, 183). A medium can be created but then disappear due to low consumer demand. For example, with video games that form of medium for games fluctuated based on consumer demand and ended up being off the market for a few years following the video game crash of 1983. Other things such as funding and expenses make it hard to maintain the medium. Demand is going to be very crucial with how the book develops because businesses are hoping to make money off of any new mediums that come out with the book. When the physical books were created they were created at a time were demand needed to be there in order to invent something. Funding was not going to be that big of an issue if books can be developed for years to make It successful. A digital book medium will not take as long and it will use the success of the book as a checkpoint to create something from there which was the eBook. These formats were able to adapt to consumer demand and have remained stable mediums throughout time. Especially with the eBook being a fairly new medium but not as new as other mediums that may not be as stable and would only exist for a short period of time.
Game based books may start coming out. Like I mentioned earlier there was a video game crash that made it so that consumers could not buy video games as they were low in demand and no one wanted to buy any anyway. However, video games have made a comeback and the demand for video games is greater than ever as books can have their own video game like we are seeing but they could have more details and experiences that are not currently found book-based video games today. Sometimes books become movies then become games. However, we lose a lot of detail in the story and the video games do not seem as good as the book especially if the video game is based off the movie and not the book. There may be a future where as gaming evolves so does books. Same with how video evolves so will the book. Videos could have a choose your own adventure style that could easily be implemented into eBooks but not with physical print books as it is not possible to choose your own adventure in those books. Books have the ability to evolve if other forms of media evolve to create a different kind of experience.
Books will not exclude print but we have advantages and disadvantages to consider when we are reading using eBooks as they are able to add features change the experience and create new mediums digitally. The people who will be publishing the social and gaming related books will be the authors themselves as they take pride in publishing their own books, other publishers who are already established and new up and coming publishers. Google may want to take over the publishing market as a whole to monopolize the marketplace like it is doing now with Google Books. The readers of the books will vary in attention spans and are willing to read things that spark interest. The attention spans of the readers are more likely to be shorter than current reader attention spans. The experience of the social and gaming books will be as familiar and usable to the reader as possible. The experience of course will vary depending on the book format. The VR books will function like VR. The social based books will be a new experience with some familiar features to help the reader guide through the reading. Gaming books will function like a video game. Most people do not like change so when changing a medium it needs to be familiar and the new things need to mesh well with what is new. What will be coming in the future is not decided by me but the future will be decided by many people and it is coming whether we like it or not so what the book will be in the future can change at anytime by anyone but one thing is for certain the analog will not go away. . “what is beyond the book is still a book”(Borsuk, 256)
work cited:
Borsuk, Amaranth. The Book. The MIT Press, 2018.