Applen sure talks a lot about this Birkerts guy. Both of them had a lot to say about books and computers. I dislike how they presented computers in a bad light without ever considering books can have a bad light as well. The library thing about books giving more insight into history isn’t all that true. Yes, there are the historical books themselves, but a library tends to have newer stuff. Lots of hands touching those books. Those books can fall apart. So those books are newer than one might think. A museum would give a better sense of history than a library. Not everyone can get a picture with books, some people only see the words with no visuals. I feel like they didn’t highlight how useful computers can be in the sense that they can easily other ways to learn like videos.
While the library thing was a miss for me, they did make some great points. I liked them talking about how once a computer is turned off those words are gone. To me, they didn’t take that far enough. They could’ve mentioned power outages. I have been through week-long power outages. Back then I didn’t have my own computer, but I did have books. While I couldn’t really read them when the sun set, I could read them during the day. Not only do power outages compromise computers, but so does internet access. That is why people bring books on planes and trains. Yes, the books could get damaged and the words will then be gone. However, the words there last longer than the words on a computer. Computers face power loss, internet loss, the site being taken down, the page being edited, and possible hacking.
Overall
Both books and computers have their ups and downs. For me, computer writing is so much better. I always forget how awful I am at spelling, and I’ll admit I got comfortable relying on that red line appearing. I have gotten many comments from teachers and professors about my handwritten work versus my online work, my online work always being better. However, I do prefer books for reading. Every Christmas I put books on the list and I always get at least two new books. I only read online for college work because it is way too much money to buy books for every single class. I think nothing in this world can be fully good or fully bad and I wish people would present both sides more equally than just trashing on one and highlighting the other.
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