Print is Dead: Books in Our Digital Age

Slate has an essay this week entitled “Will the Web make film festivals obsolete?” which talks about how the major film festivals — such as Sundance — have turned into unwieldy behemoths, and that maybe filmgoers getting together online will put film festivals out of business or else make them less relevant. The essay mentions how the Web is amazingly adept at putting people in touch with content, as well as acting as a filter for people looking for certain kinds of entertainment. And now that everyone is downloading music videos and TV shows onto their iPods and laptops, why not movies? The article then goes on to pinpoint a few of the problems standing in the way of large-scale adoption when it comes to people watching movies on small or portable devices, bringing up the inevitable old chestnut which often rises to the surface — the same as it always does with digital reading and electronic books — “the ‘people won’t do X on their computer’ explanation.” I think that’s a great way of putting it, and it’s something I’ve heard over and over. “People won’t listen to music on a computer,” or “People won’t want to look at their photographs on their computer.” And yet time and time again people have shown themselves to be incredibly adept at using new technology and embracing change. In terms of the “future of the book” debate, it’s always “People won’t read books on a computer.” Wanna bet?

From the article: “Many people speculate that no one wants to watch a movie on his or her computer. While that may be a part of the story, the ‘people won’t do X on their computer’ explanation has been wrong so often that it cannot be the full answer. The last decade has demonstrated that people are surprisingly willing to put up with lower quality or discomfort to get the content they want or to get stuff for free, whether it’s telephones (cell phones and Skype), music (MP3s), and even video (YouTube). We just aren’t that picky.”

Slate: Will the Web make film festivals obsolete?