Dire Prognostications?

(Taken Loosely from Sven Birkerts, The Gutenberg Elegies, 1993)

What oral poetry was for the Greeks, printed books in general are for us.  But our

historical moment, what we might call “proto-electronic,” will not require a

transition period of two centuries.  The very essence of electronic transmissions is

to surmount impedances and to hasten transitions.  Fifty years, I’m sure, will

suffice.

                                                                                                --Sven Birkerts

The Age of Print is rapidly drawing to a close.  We have already entered into a new age of electronic communication and cyber space that will revolutionize the ways we live our lives, particularly in the ways we interact and communicate.

Being wired is already becoming more important than being literate.

The body of literate (or literary) readers is rapidly shrinking.  Readings books, as we understand the process, will become an outdated—if not obsolete—skill.

Most students today are considerable less comfortable reading than students a generation ago.  They read less, and they understand less of what they read. 

These same students are much more comfortable with computer screens than with books.  They are much more comfortable interpreting visual images and icons than textual descriptions.  They have been trained to think in images rather than in deep contemplation.

These students are going to take over the world.

The concept of reading is undergoing a drastic transformation.  In the near future nearly all reading will take place on computer screens.  What will constitute reading will take place in shorter and shorter durations, and in shorter and shorter forms.  Readers will scan for highlighted bits, bytes, and bullets of information.

The concept of literacy is undergoing a drastic transformation.  If there is a new Dark Ages, the dividing line between the ignorant masses and the enlightened few will be technological knowledge, not humanistic knowledge.

The means through which we receive information wholly affects the way we process that information.

We are losing our capacity to use language in skillful and subtle ways.

Eventually, English Departments will be merged into History Departments.  Libraries will become centers for student academic services.