The modern generation understands the “ins and outs” of late age printing- that is obvious. Writers and scholars today understand that there is not just a late age of printing. There is also an early age of printing. This is important to go over, before diving into what late age printing is. Decades ago, our past ancestors began with the simplicity of carving letters or symbols into stone. Overtime our ancestors learned that printing can be easier using ink and paper to translate their thoughts into words and share amongst others. They learned that this way of printing is easier than carving words into stone. They then learned how to develop a printing press, producing mass texts of writing in order to spread and share wisdom, knowledge, facts or events to others world wide. Without this discovery of quicker ways to print, thanks to our past ancestors we would not be as developed as we are today.
The Late Age
Now we are in the modern times where the late age of printing is evident in every day life. Especially for writers and individuals who write and print their works. Our ancestors would be thrilled to know how easy it is to write, print and share our ideas. This of course comes with the access to technology. There is a debatable question though: Will digitized print eliminate traditional print? That is something to seriously consider, is there really a need for traditional print while we have digitized? J. David Bolter helps us understand the reality of is in a simple way. He mentions the term ” remediation” as a way to differentiate between early and late age printing. Bolter States:
“Remediation describes the shift to a newer form of media that takes some of the characteristics of a previous form, but then refashions it. Because the newer technology “remediates” the older one, there is an implicit assumption that the newer form improves it.”
We are in a time where technology and media are on a rapid movement. Every day there is a new form of technology that will help us print/write digitally. We are progressing even quicker than our ancestors when it comes to printing. I am sure we are all thankful for the development of printing in our past, but now we have taken it even further, bettering it each day. Moreover, it is important to ask this question: Is traditional printing important to teach to younger generations? Is there a need for it anymore? I would like to believe that it is not- what is the point of having a child write an essay with pen and paper when they can type it on a computer?
It is imperative to note that although we needed the discovery of traditional printing from our ancestors. It gave us the ability to discover and craft printing even more, making it more advanced. However, since we have the prior knowledge of traditional printing it is arguable that we simply do not need it anymore.
Leave a Reply