E-book: the end of the book?

In 1999 the United States the book on paper was the best-selling item over the Internet. With a market share of 11 per cent of total e-commerce, the books have exceeded even the computer programs (10 percent) and music (8.7 percent). So far, therefore, not only the traditional volumes were not replaced by new digital media, but rather information technology have contributed to their spread. But what can still take the book of paper? Will in the end, supplanted by the e-book? Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, the entrepreneur who made fortune with the paper books, it is certain that the advance of electronic ones will be unstoppable, “is no longer a question of if but of when the e-books and then ‘download’ you say. ” If the forecast Bezos seems almost obvious, the questions on the theoretical and practical consequences of the development of e-book as a tool of learning that is fun is, however, still open.

The question of questions is whether the new media technology can influence not only the use but also the production of the text, and even the development of meaning. In other words, when read predominantly by digital write differently? It is natural that, faced with such a very complex, scholars are divided: some are skeptical that the digital format can produce a “genetic mutation” on the structures of language and thought, for others, however, will change everything.

Francesco Antinucci, Cnr researcher expert in cognitive processes and new technologies, while acknowledging the difficulty of making predictions on this subject, observes that what has happened in the past suggests that new media also induce changes in the forms of writing. “The book exists for four-five centuries – Antinucci says – in the form that we know, that is, as a print book, before there were books manuscripts. So a mere change of initial support, but brings with it a series of enormous consequences, already just in size. The book is portable and it creates opportunities and ways of reading completely different from previous ones. ” Even with regard to forms of writing you can draw a similar picture: “changing the forms of writing because there is some kind of support.” The conclusion of Antinucci is that “almost never in the history of technology what initially seems a simple change of medium changes only support.” A recent example is the word, a mode which, as any writer can confirm, has altered the ways of writing. The entry into the field of new media, then, leaves open many questions about what the possible changes in the book. And maybe the book will never be the same.