Category Archives: Internet

Advertising Books

It’s weird to see the need to advertise for books, but why is that? when was the last time you saw an ad on the Tv or whatever, for a printed book?

The library got me thinking with their valentines themed push to get people to pleasure read. It’s not that people don’t pleasure read anymore but the use of physical books has declined. It makes sense though, why carry around a big clunky book when a Kindle holds 500 books. With the digitization of print media we lose something culturally, because of the vast amount of text available at a moment to us on the internet we have become addicted to instant literary gratification.

Everyday before I go to classes I read a certain humor website that in many ways is like a magazine; they publish new articles almost everyday and hey they make me laugh. But whatever happened to actually subscribing to a magazine, well it doesn’t work out anymore. Personally I want a new article everyday ready and waiting online when I get up I don’t have the time to wait around for a weekly or monthly magazine subscription.

So for the sake of printed books, go read something that has turnable pages, instead of on a screen.

internet and books

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I am unsure of whether what I am writing makes sense because my thoughts are currently all jumbled in my head, but one thing I have noticed with our generation is that books seem to get lost in the age of the internet. With the internet there to provide answers to questions and to provide reading material, at least among many people I know, the library is no longer a place to actually borrow books, but rather one for quiet studying. Granted, I have friends who still frequent the library for its books but that does not account for the majority of the people I know. In regards to rare books and the questions, where do we find information on them and where do we find images of them, a reasonable answer could be the internet. However, I think many people fail to notice that there are also many libraries that specialize in such books. After viewing in class the different texts, I think it is most beneficial to see these books in person so that one can fully appreciate their qualities. Is the internet taking away from the unique qualities rare books posses?

Youtube is terrible

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So, I’m trying to get some study music off of youtube and I really felt like listening to Caparezza, an Italian artist. So youtube kept giving me a “This video has been blocked in your Country” message. Finally out of annoyance I went on the Italian language google page and still same thing.

I thought the whole purpose of Youtube and of the internet in general was to broaden the cultural horizons of the global population, so that as a global community people can share thoughts and ideas across borders. apparently this doesn’t apply to music.

Licensing and Translation

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Now, I am someone who is a big fan of things like anime and manga, and naturally the issue regarding them is finding a translation that I can understand. Nowadays, many companies exist solely to translate and distribute the media. However, for a large consumer such as myself, I would say they do not license and bring over enough. This essentially forces me to rely on fan translations, which at essence, is pirating: taking a book, translating it, and distributing it for free around the internet. At heart, pirating robs the possible income for a company and creator. However, also DUE to it, a wider audience is reached, thereby creating a GREATER possible income.

Despite being a clear violation of IP rights, online distributors are more or less left alone to their own devices while consumers blissfully increase their digital collection. This leaves me to wonder if pirating, while still giving credit (but not profit) to the authors, can actually serve as a functional, international advertisement method.

Course of the Course

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In our first week of readings and discussions, we talked about how technology and available materials affect publication. We also analyzed the experience between author and reader and how it relates to ownership of text. I am interested how in these ideas, as well as those that we will learn about this semester, apply to literary and daily experiences in today’s age and in the future. What do I mean by that?

Recently, I sent out an email to set up a meeting for my Student Organization Committee. One of the committee members emailed back asking what he should bring to the meeting to which I was going to respond a pen and paper until I realized that this technology is becoming increasingly outdated. Smartphone technology, iPads, computers, etc. are changing the way people record notes. What does this mean for how note taking and idea exchange is recorded? How will we access and assess this information in the future when smartphones, iPads, and computers are outdated? In 100 or 1000 years, will people be able to look back at our notes and written record of exchanges like we were able to see when we looked at the cuneiform tablets in the library on Tuesday? Does it matter?

Secondly, when we discussed the relationship between reader and author presented by Baurtes (the reader adds his or her own interpretation to the work), it reminded me of the dilemma of text messaging and emails. More and more, technology is becoming a substitute for human interactions. Sometimes, readers misperceive the message sent via text or email because they cannot get the facial or vocal cues given by the author. Are there other instances that we will encounter that we can apply more broadly to our own lives?

The Landfill

Just another Sites at Lafayette College site