Is print dead?

[trappedslider]

In the thread discussing the World War Z movie it was said that the print is dead. I disagree with that statement...what do you all think is it dead?

[bhu]

I wouldn't call it dead, but I'd call it severely ill.

[linklord231]

Depends on the content.  For newspapers and magazines, it's definitely dying.  It's too slow and too expensive. 

For novels, print is still pretty powerful, but I think it's losing ground as more and more people get tablets and e-readers.  Still, there will always be people who just enjoy holding a book, so I don't think it's going to die out any time soon. 

Textbooks are tricky.  If it's a specific book that I'm required to have for a class, but will probably never open again, I'll go with whichever option is cheaper - usually "renting" the ebook, but sometimes I can sell the physical book back for almost what I paid.  If it's for a book that I'll be reading a lot, even after the semester is done, I'll buy the print book.  It's clunky and heavy, but I can bookmark it easier and I don't have to alt+tab between the book and whatever I'm working on.  Of course, this is assuming that I've already deemed it necessary to buy a textbook for whatever reason, and the library or internet research won't cut it. 

For RPG rulebooks, I like physical copies of the ones I used most, but pdfs for supplements and games that I don't play often.  I imagine most people feel the same.

So in short, no.  Print is definitely not as powerful as it was just a few years ago, and a lot of publishers are struggling to adapt to the changing paradigm, but printed works will still have a place for the foreseeable future. 

[Jackinthegreen]

Some print is dead or dying.  Magazines and newspapers are definitely declining as people turn to online sources (Playboy comes to mind as definitely declining).  Books, however, will still have some nostalgia and even prestige.

The current generation that's using tablets and such will definitely lose interest in print though, and as the older generations die off we'll see many print media become a thing of the past.

[oslecamo]

My evidence points quite in the contrary. The new generation are keeping the print copies on my city growing thanks for mass demand of printing cheap pdfs. Mass-produced Panflets still get distributed at basically every important event.

Books are something you can carry to the beach/forest whitout worries of batteries or sand geting in the circuits.

Books are something you can open, read a page or two and then put them away whitout much hassle. And I can also add a note or two whitout need of going trough a dozen check-ups.

Books are something I can read while my computer is busy processing something heavy.

Books also don't burn your eyes. Seriously, computer screens are awful for your eye health.

EDIT: Plus, you already checked how well children's card games sell nowadays?

[kitep]

Yes and no.  Some print is dying.  OTOH, junk mail is doing fine.  Also, computers make it easy to do reports, which then get printed and stored as hard-copies, even they're not actually looked at.

Cursive writing does seem on the way out.  I hear in some schools, it's not even required anymore.

[Jackinthegreen]

I really need to relearn cursive and get practiced at it again, if only to legibly do my signature and such.  Penmanship in general needs to keep being taught I think.

[linklord231]

Yes and no.  Some print is dying.  OTOH, junk mail is doing fine.  Also, computers make it easy to do reports, which then get printed and stored as hard-copies, even they're not actually looked at.

Cursive writing does seem on the way out.  I hear in some schools, it's not even required anymore.

In my opinion, it's much more important for kids to learn how to type than learn cursive.  Sure, knowing how to read it is important, but that can be taught relatively quickly. 

[bhu]

Yes and no.  Some print is dying.  OTOH, junk mail is doing fine.  Also, computers make it easy to do reports, which then get printed and stored as hard-copies, even they're not actually looked at.

Cursive writing does seem on the way out.  I hear in some schools, it's not even required anymore.

In my opinion, it's much more important for kids to learn how to type than learn cursive.  Sure, knowing how to read it is important, but that can be taught relatively quickly.

You'd be surprised.  There's a lot of illiterate people out there.

[dman11235]

Cursive is a useless skill.  The only reason people still use it is a misguided belief that the way you write something actually makes it more meaningful and "academic" or whatever.  It's going to go away sooner rather than later.  Signatures don't need to be in cursive, they need to be a signature.  Whatever that means depends on the person doing the signing.  It just needs to represent them.  If you're forced to use cursive, you aren't representing yourself, you're being represented by society.

As for print, it's not going away.  It's also dying.  It's an apocalypse for print, and I mean that in the actual definition, not the "doomsday" one people always assume.  Print is changing, and will keep changing as society changes.  Some people are embracing it and succeeding, and some are sticking with the past and failing.  Those succeeding will continue on, while those failing will die out.  The only reason we are even talking about the "death of print" is because those who are not adapting to society and the times are the ones running the news, so they get to feed a narrative of fear and death of print.

Here's the thing though.  Electronic media is still print.  Books are still being written, stories are being told, and literacy will, if nothing else, get better.  The fact that it's not on paper doesn't mean anything, really, except that it's more accessible.  The exceptions to this change are ones already brought up: sometimes it's more efficient to have an actual physical copy of something.  Those won't go away.  They may change in how they are obtained (maybe even requiring you to print your own copy, maybe a dual-purchase, maybe something we can't even imagine yet), but nothing is really dying.  It's changing.

[Amechra]

I just hope that dead tree releases still happen; I like the feel of a book in the hands, you know?

But yeah, there definitely is some evolution going on. I just hope they come up with a really satisfying substitute.

[awaken_D_M_golem]

Throw a dart at a map of India or China,
and chances are wherever that dart lands,
there's a dude(-ette) who dreams of using an
elcheapo walkytalky-like semi-smart phone.

Instead they pay 5 cents for their weekly rag
of cartoons+News.  Print ain't totally dead yet.
But those price models for "free" cell phones
work all the way down.

[Captnq]

I had a much longer and witter reply, but I chiseled it on a pyramid after doing a rough draft on some papyrus and the e-mail service says it's too big to upload.

Is the exchange of information dead? No. I'm doing it right now. I'm typing crap as we speak. Information exchange is WAY up. However, in this fast-paced, post-future shock, ADHD, Info-addicted world only one thing matters:

SPEED.

Time. That's the problem. Not enough time. How many co-workers pull out a cellphone to spend time "watering their crops" on facebook? I got a co-worker who works 4 hours a day and I've seen her on her cell phone for OVER TWO AND A HALF HOURS. If I could, I'd ban every cellphone on the planet. I hate them. TV too. Don't even have cable.

Just because I hate most modern developments in communication technologies doesn't mean I can't accept the reality. Do you know how many things I am barred from doing on the internet because I refuse to get a facebook account? I get it. I'm a neanderthal in the space age. I still can think for myself, you know.

Is radio dead? Why no, I hear it all the time in my car, except that people are increasingly downloading podcasts and plugging their cellphones directly into their cars. I was surprised to find that of my co-workers, nobody under thirty listens to the actual radio.

This is only the beginning. Once Google manages to make that self-driving car available on the cheap, radio will die. Once I can get internet in my car and spend the 40 minute commute surfing and twittering: OMG! Tht Car Hz a Darwin Fish B-Stick! LOLOLOLOLO!!! Nobody will turn on a radio again.

My City's newspaper only publishes Sun, Tues, Thursday, Friday.
Junk Mail is alive and well, you say? So this talk of reducing my post office's deliverys to monday through friday is just... 'cause? Maybe there isn't as much junk mail as you think.

As for books, half the libraries in my area have already closed. The other half are having bake sales and crap.

Hell, you know those texts you love so much? Twitter crap? Now it's google glass, Before you know it, it'll be full up Augmented reality. Then they got those implantable Bluetooth ear pieces. Normally it's used for people who can't hear or federal agents, but you'll see. As soon as they perfect that throat patch that lets you talk without actually making a sound, even cellphones will die away. (and yes, I've used that patch. It's way too slow, but it works.)

Just about the time we have effectively full-on mechanically assisted "telepathy", print will completely die. What will replace it? I dunno. But considering how much clarity has suffered in the past 20 years, I'm not thinking it'll be anything you or I can imagine.

I actually heard the following exchange yesterday at the grocery store

Cashier: How are you doing today?
Customer in front of me: Meh.
Cashier: Ell-Oh-Ell!

And a small part of my soul DIES inside.

You can argue it's still alive, as you get into your restored gremlin and pop in your 8-track to drive down to record world and buy some vinyl because you and all the other hipsters agree the sound quality is MUCH better. Maybe I'm performing the autopsy before the patient has finally expired. Maybe my pyramid will finally upload.

I know! I'll take a picture of it and put it on Pinterest!

I'll send you the link as soon as I'm done updating my v-blog.

[Nanshork]

Oh yea, after reading that I finally see the light.   

[Captnq]

Oh yea, after reading that I finally see the light.   

The irony of your ironic emoticon is quite ironic.

Addendum: In case you don't get it, Emoticons are killing print. It's been a while since man used pictographs, but some some reason they are coming back in style. The fact you don't get that literally killed Hope Itself. Hope Itself, the concept, just manifested in front of me, screamed for mercy, then bashed it's head over and over with my fisher-price Happy Apple until Hope Itself finally, mercifully, died.

Having never seen death by Happy Apple before, I must say it is a very melodic and soothing death. May that give you some comfort in the cold nights to come.


Murderer.

[Nanshork]

Sometimes the things that you say are so absurd that I just don't have an adequate response...

[veekie]

Comic Related

[oslecamo]

There's been people hating the printed word with a burning  passion ever since human beings started mass-writing things down in solid materials. Some things must change so the whole stays the same (just like doomsayers as pointed by Veekie above, that have been around doomsaying pretty much everything ever since there's records).

[awaken_D_M_golem]

... Emoticons are killing print ...

Perhaps in small ways, but I have to say NO
emphatically.  Print leaves out too much information
from common speech.  You can read a script of a
Shakespeare Play, but it means nearly nothing without
a decent actor.  Right now people can't handle reading
a Musical score version of an MLKjr speech.
(maybe soon enough with moore's law)

Murderer.

[dither]

"The more things change, the more they stay the same."

Print isn't dying, it's just changing.


--Dither