Will the internet ever replace books? Only if they’re able to replace a key and unique factor that up until now only books have successfuly been able to supply — linear concentration. Johann Hari has an article about the function of the book and how it will continue to persist in an age of distraction:
And here’s the function that the book – the paper book that doesn’t beep or flash or link or let you watch a thousand videos all at once – does for you that nothing else will. It gives you the capacity for deep, linear concentration. As Ulin puts it: “Reading is an act of resistance in a landscape of distraction…. It requires us to pace ourselves. It returns us to a reckoning with time. In the midst of a book, we have no choice but to be patient, to take each thing in its moment, to let the narrative prevail. We regain the world by withdrawing from it just a little, by stepping back from the noise.”
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Jean-Phillipe De Tonnac says “the true function of books is to safeguard the things that forgetfulness constantly threatens to destroy.”
(via Johann Hari: How to survive the age of distraction – Johann Hari, Commentators – The Independent)