Books - Why they still matter in the digital age

Books are everywhere and they are sometimes taken for granted. Today we dive in this exclusive technology which has been with the humans since eternity and why do they still matter.

Today even though the world witnesses the highest number of readers, the growth of readers compared to the masses is diminishing. So Let's dive deeper to understand this fascinating technology.

Misconception of being a software

We often tend to think books as something which contains information, like our digital age websites and articles - thinking it to be like a software. But Books are more than just a software, it is a mix of software and hardware because reality is the physical format of the book, the way we interact with the book, has a very important impact on what we get out of it, what enables us to do and how it's used.

Books as a time-machine

It freezes the time when it was written and interpretation relies on the current world of the reader. You peek into the mind of the author, at what he or she felt when they wrote it.

Take up a book which you read in your childhood or probably some years back - Re-read it and suddenly the meaning of the book changes to what you felt about it originally.

It also gives us an opportunity to interact with ideas of people who were on earth way before us.

Hinduism even has Lord Ganesha scribing Mahabharata while it was being dictated by the Great Sage - Ved Vyasa.

Critics of Books and Writing

Out of all the great philosophers of their time - Socrates (also one of the inspirations of early stoicism) was actually against books & writing. And we know about his teachings because Plato - his student, wrote them down.

1) He argued that books gives an appearance to a reader of knowing stuff when in reality they don't really know anything.

2) The book can only say what it says, it cannot argue back and it cannot deal with the reader's objection.

3) A book for one audience can reach to another - which was not intended to. Falling into the wrong hands.

Books vs the digital age

Codex - Books took over the formats of scrolls due to it's inherent format called - codis or codex - which allowed reader to navigate to any section of the content without going through all the previous content like in a scroll. Something the new age videos, youtube videos with chapters and indexes are unable to match still, compared to a book.

The ability to go back and get the exact content is what books have inherently in them, which the digital age media is trying to mimic. In other words, the videos - the podcasts - the webpages are all trying to be a book.

Clarity - During writing, an author can write - go back and analyse , improve what he wrote and in turn get better clarity of thoughts. That is why writing brings clarity to our thoughts and books reach to the reader with how it was meant to be.

Personal Space - With the invention of the printing press, books became cheaper and accessible. Everyone has an opportunity to have a personal space of interpretation without judgement.

Fiction - Reading Fiction allows the reader to be in the place of the protagonist and have the ability to interact with otherwise may or may not be possible in the real world. It increases the cognitive ability to understand the thoughts and feelings of other people. Something a movie or animation sometimes provide but with temporary impact.

Embracing the Digital Age

Today we find ourselves surrounded by these AI agents which are able to summarise the books. Which essentially takes away the essence of it. Embracing these AI agents to dive deeper into a meaning like asking questions about where the author is coming from or simplifying the language such as of classics - can benefit our reading exponentially.

Digital Age might not be an enemy but more of an enabler.

Fun-Fact:

At the end of this article, I wish to leave you with a fun-fact.

Did you know, Hernando Colon or Ferdinand Columbus - Son of Columbus was one of the first person to recognize and place books in an upright position on shelves as opposed to keeping them in storage boxes. He recognized that by keeping them upright, he would be able to index and catalogue them. His desire at that time was to develop the biggest library in the world.