Follow TV Tropes

Following

Is The Written Word Going To Disappear?

Go To

TheyCallMeTomu Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: Anime is my true love
#26: Oct 7th 2010 at 1:58:01 PM

But are we more literate than we were ten years ago?

Treblain Not An Avatar Since: Nov, 2012
Not An Avatar
#27: Oct 7th 2010 at 2:51:03 PM

This idea is what made me despise Rainbow's End. Vernor Vinge expects me to believe that in 20 years from 2006, teenagers will be completely illiterate due to the Internet. Even assuming instant video and audio streaming directly into the brain (which I'm pretty sure doesn't exist in the novel), that assumes that within ten years of the novel's publication, reading will be taken off the school curriculum entirely. That puts far too much faith in the efficiency of a government-run school system to adapt- in real life they'd be teaching reading for fifty years after the death of the written word and still be tied up in legislation.

Bottom line, people are going to write, and they're certainly going to type. You can read text at your own pace, unlike video and audio. Until you can instantly upload things to your brain, print can't die, and even then, it will have its uses.

We're not just men of science, we're men of TROPE!
CommandoDude They see me troll'n from Cauhlefohrnia Since: Jun, 2010
They see me troll'n
#28: Oct 9th 2010 at 2:18:47 PM

It'll all just get put on ebooks and shit like that.

If you're implying that things like reading and writting (typing?) are going to disappear...well...I'd laugh at that idea.

My other signature is a Gundam.
Shichibukai Permanently Banned from Banland Since: Oct, 2011
Permanently Banned
#29: Oct 10th 2010 at 6:22:04 PM

Does TV tropes look like a video blogging site to you?

I think it's rather ludicrous, but nonetheless trends can have a nasty habit of dragging us all in. Everyone signed up for Facebook because their friends were doing it and they would lose out otherwise. It is possible that many people will just stop reading and migrate to video. Their friends could be forced to move to video to stay in touch. Snowball effect. It is a nightmare scenario, hopefully it is unlikely as so many people recognise the value of learning languages in text form in the first place.

The written word has so much more depth to it than the spoken word. We must not let language decline into anti-intellectual newspeak.

Requiem ~ September 2010 - October 2011 [Banned 4 Life]
jewelleddragon Also known as Katz from Pasadena, CA Since: Apr, 2009
Also known as Katz
#30: Oct 10th 2010 at 7:05:52 PM

Everybody starts doing things because everyone else is doing it. It's less common for everyone to stop doing something, unless it was just a fad to begin with.

Add Post

Total posts: 30
Top