Douglas Adams Case
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CAT Essay 1
“Lovers of print are simply confusing the plate for the food”- Douglas Adams. Sven Birkerts does not support the idea of the advent of the digital age of technology, where books and other printed texts are being replaced by newer and more efficient technologies for convenient and faster comprehension of information. ” A shift from vertical to horizontal parallels, from intensive to extensive reading” (Birkerts 72) . Birkerts believes that nowadays, people just skim through the text instead of deeply analyzing and trying to perceive the full meaning behind what is being read. He feels that this is harming the natural human intelligence. Birkerts believes that the world is going through a cultural watershed. Earlier, a worldly wise person would be someone who had travelled around the world, exploring cities and diverse people from all over the world. But now, information is just handed to you in your living room. “There is almost nothing in common between the villager conning his book of sculptures by lantern-light and the contemporary apartment dweller riffling the pages of a newspaper while attending to live televised reports from Bosnia” (Birkerts 73). Birkerts believes that the digital age has led people not to delve into the information but only go through it, understanding it like a summary rather than examining the full text. I believe that the digital age of technology has made everything more convenient and efficient than it previously was. Such advancements have helped us in a tremendous way. People need to be aware of the benefits of new technologies and how these technologies can bring about a major change in their lives. A shift from the legacy technologies is definitely a big boon for everyone.
” Newspapers, magazines, brochures,advertisements and labels surround us everywhere–surround us,indeed,to the point of having turned our walking environment into a palimpsest of texts to be read, glanced at, or ignored.” ( Birkerts 71). Birkerts gives the example of Rolf Englesing, a historian who compares two time periods; the Middle Ages to 1750 where men used to read books over and over again only because of the limited content available to them and the 1800s where men only used to read once because of more content available in that period. He feels that because of so much content available, people would just glance at the text or ignore it rather than reading it multiple times. He feels that the digital age of technology has led people to read less and thus absorb less than they previously did. I feel that there is no need to read something multiple times unless the content really catches your attention. People in the Middle ages were almost forced to read the same content over and over again due to lack of books available at that time. The invention of newspapers, magazines and journals made the people move on from one set of content to another, absorbing more information Than they previously could. Suppose a person is very interested in the Geography of the world and is keen on learning about the various lands, features and inhabitants of different countries. Assuming that this person has two books about two different countries, say Australia and Kenya, talking about their geography. He would much rather read both the books than read the Australia or Kenya book multiple times. He would learn about both the countries and thus benefit more than just reading about the geogrpahy of Australia.
“Awed and intimidated by the availability of texts, faced with the all but impossible task of discriminating among them, the reader tends to move across surfaces, skimming, hastening from one site to the next without allowing the words to resonate inwardly”. (Birkerts 72) Birkerts states that because of the wide variety of material easily accessible to the people, they will never be motivated to understand the text fully and will just half-heartedly skim through it. He believes that reading content online will only distract the person, with so many external sources such as hyperlinks and advertisements shown on the same web page one is trying to get the information on. This will lead to the person giving only a fraction of his or her attention on what is required to be comprehended, the other part focussing on the various distractions on the screen. I do not agree with this assumption. I feel that because of so much information available at such convenience, people would want to stimulate themselves by absorbing more and more and use that information in their