in the process of throwing it away for something we know is worse

If—as seems to be the case—I am to join the ranks of middle-aged men yelling at clouds, I guess I can bear it if Adam Kotsko is in the vanguard:

Print was a perfected technology, an unsurpassable way of sharing information and ideas and stories — and we are all in the process of throwing it away for something we know is worse, out of inertia and laziness and cheapness and convenience.

And:

Computers cannot [just] give us the information because they cannot, and likely never will, understand meaning and context. Only we can — though we must take the time to learn and cultivate the skills necessary, the habits of mind and body that allow us to engage with the marvellous and unsurpassable human technology known as the printed word.

(Emphasis added for clarity—precisely because I am aware of the loss of meaning that can arise from the decontextualisation of a quote like this.)

Go read it all; it’s not very long.

Posted

in

, , ,

Comments and pingbacks

2 responses to “in the process of throwing it away for something we know is worse”

  1. […] running parallel to people who have thought about these issues in greater depth. Travelling via The Velcro City Tourist Board, I landed on this short piece by Adam Kotsko: The Information Environment: Toward a Deeper […]

  2. Jay Springett avatar

    The game designer Paul Czege has just launched a new newsletter called ‘Say We Do’. A post about the return to physical media

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.