Future of Books

)Home work Blog entry#3Watch the video clip: http://archives.cbc.ca/IDC-1-69-342-1814/life_society/mcluhan/clip2

What is the future of the book in the Global Village?

The future of the book in the Global Village is hard to predict exactly because we do not know how technology is going to advance in the future. I think that the importance of books will depend on the advance in other media forms. Marshall McLuhan said that the book hasn't lost importance necessarily, it has just changed what it is used for. In Renaissance times, the book was the only form of receiving information. As time went on, the television, radio and computer became the main sources of information and the book just drifted to the background in that aspect. Books are used now for entertainment and personal insight into someones feelings on a topic (IE. Race Against Time by Stephen Lewis). It is because there are so many ways that are easier than reading from a book to get the info that you need. In the near future, I know books will still be around and possibly very, very, very far in the future, they will no longer be made, kind of like Cd's, tapes cassettes and MP3s took the place of records. But in the near future, the pattern that the use for books has taken will continue. As new technologies and media improvements are created, books' purpose will change. Once again, it is not that books will have to loose popularity but what is changing is its use. That is my opinion and what I took out of the interview.