Week 16 Prompt: Final Thoughts

How have reading and books changed since I was a child?  One thing I always think about when I'm looking at the books I would have read as a kid is that the vast array of choices are so unbelievable.  I grew up in a small town with a small library that had just a bunch of dusty, old-timey books nobody wanted to read.  My parents weren't big readers, so we didn't have much around the house to read except some dusty, old-timey books, Good Housekeeping magazine, National Geographic magazine and an encyclopaedia.  I craved books and words.  I read anything I could find.  So I can only wonder how different my life would have been with so many options for reading, in so many formats and so easily accessible.  

You'd think that with a deluge of books and authors focused on young people that young people would be voracious readers.  I'm dubious of that, though, because the vice grip that phones have on people today is scary.  My own daughter, who was raised with books everywhere, could not care less about reading.  But take that phone away from her for an hour and she goes bananas!  This is what makes it seem that reading in the future will be all but eliminated.  Taking the time to sit and read a good book is a ridiculous notion when you could be scrolling through your phone to find the next awesome meme or youtube video, or instagramming your millionth selfie out to hundreds of incurious followers.  

Ok, reading eliminated might be over the top.  But I am pretty sure that print books, at least, will gradually phase out.  Moving into a technological future of electronic reading is inevitable because it seems that the material to actually make books and magazines - paper - is a finite resource.  Also, waste is a serious problem for our world and paper creates waste.  Books, magazines and newspapers create waste.  Eventually, everything will need to be electronic because we will have no more room for storing or disposal of all that paper.  I definitely think we should all get used to electronic reading because it's going to take over at some point.  That's just my opinion, though. 

I wouldn't presume to predict how reading will change in the future.  Obviously, there will always be people like myself and probably most of the other people in this class who were simply born to read.  And we are the ones who will keep the publishing industry going - albeit in an electric format.  Will everyone else decide to give up reading completely?  Will we descend into a Brave New World type scenario where people don't read or think for themselves?  Will publishing diminish into a hobby horse for well-to-do intellectuals?  It's anyone's guess.  At the current time, though, I feel optimistic.  With so many people fancying themselves writers in the world, and with so many thousands of books being published and marketed that it's overwhelming, I'd say we have a long way to go before reading and books become obsolete.