Last week, I had a short but interesting chat with someone at the corporate gig I’m currently working on. He was telling me about a commentator he heard on the radio who stated that ebook readers in their current form were doomed. Why? Because 1) the screens are grayscale, and 2) the content on the devices is static.
The commentator contended that text isn’t enough, and that you can incorporate dynamic content — say, Flash movies — in an ebook. That way, what’s being read becomes more compelling to the reader, and brings the content to life.
Interesting ideas, and ones that I’d heard several times in the past. I wasn’t convinced. I’m still not. Here’s why.
The fallacy of the flashy
Books are funny things. They’ve been with us for hundreds of years, and only now have started to change. If you’ve used an ebook reader (and I have for over a year), you’ll have noticed that the experience is a lot like reading a dead trees book. Sure, the screen is matte and grayscale. But take a second to grab a book. Take a close look at it. Chances are, that book is made up of black text on a white page. That doesn’t stop people from reading books, does it? Anyway, ebook readers with colour screens are undoubtedly in the cards. It’s just a matter of when, and how much.
Dynamic content, like those Flash movies, has its place, but I’m not sure that place is embedded in an ebook. Dynamic content has many uses, and it has more than a few drawbacks.
I always go back to the example of commercial educational software. Lessons or sections contain lengthy preambles setting up the back story in that lesson or section. You can’t skip past. This really disrupts the flow of learning. Dynamic content in an ebook disrupts the narrative flow. Yes, even if you can skip past it.
A threat to writers?
Remember the person with whom I had the conversation that sparked this post? When I brought up my objections, he half-jokingly accused me of being afraid of losing livelihood because of new technology. I’ve been accused of being afraid of new technology in the past, and nothing could be further from the truth. I make a fair portion of my living writing about technology. I use quite a bit of it. But I don’t go all ga-ga for new technology just because it’s new. For me, technology has to be useful, not just neat.
And advances in technology aren’t a threat to writers. Why? Technology may progress, but clear communication remains essential. And a lot of the time clear communication comes in form of words. Even with video. A video needs not only a premise and a storyboard, but also a script. The script makes what’s being recorded clear and tight. I’ve seen too many videos that were ad-libbed, and they rambled on and lost my attention. Even when a video like that is edited, it can be a disjointed mess. Not exactly the best way to communicate ideas.
Change, but not for the sake of change
Back in the mid 1990s, I wrote an opinion piece for The Globe and Mail newspaper. In it, I stated that electronic books would never kill physical tomes. I still stand by most of the arguments in that essay.
Yes, ebook readers are changing books. But you don’t kill something by changing it. A book, and just about everything other form of communication, will always need a human to write it. Words will need to get on the page, whether that page is physical or virtual.
Thoughts? As always, feel free to leave a comment.
Photo credit: jppi from morguefile.com
Interesting article. I agree with you that any evolution of reading technology can’t hurt writer’s however, I do think that we are growing accustomed to more visual elements in our reading. With video, animation and photography all featuring strongly online and in printed media I think these will be in demand in e-reader works too.