End of books, suddenly in my mind, so I write it down. I was born in 1975, still considered generation grew up with the books. Lucky enough I finished graduate education and if you ask me what the most important things I learn I will be an educated person and a lifelong learner myself.
My generation, in the 80s already got the Mac Apple II, and IBM conquer the world for PCs. Then we got DOS, followed with Microsoft Windows. Around the 90s PC networked, then we got world wide web (Www), despite slow with the data fax modem speed, but it is really exciting to know now we are able to get information about the web pages. Internet first e-commerce transaction in 1995, Internet has suddenly become mega trends.
I am still a physical books lover, I read a lot, despite after working I continue to maintain and keep the habit for reading. At the very beginning, no feel so much for the Internet will kill books. Then start to see it allow music transfer over the internet, then video and movies. Suddenly the entertainment industry is collapsing. Amazon and other online bookstores are starting to get the volume of the market. Old fashion bookstores are starting to fall one after another, just like what happened to the music store, same as well for the camera store.
Despite the fact that I currently maintain the habit for writing a physical journal here and there, Japanese call it techo, to let my mind flow and capture the thought in the paper. But I also get used to writing it directly in the complete digital form. With the iPad Pro with the pencil, I can even draw and sketch without even making use of paper.
Wikimedia let me, I think the whole world know the old printed encyclopedia is dated, online and digital platforms be the only platform for now and future. Please can access a volume of digital information even with the small smartphone they carry with them.
During the COVID-19 lockdowns period, I sudden acquired online reading a lot from the ipad and ipad pro tablet, and I start to feel and questioning, it nice to have a physical book, but I compete fine for without it, what matters most is the content, exception is for those specific design as visual art and creative book.
Reading books, suddenly becomes old fashion. It made me recall when we saw a person still using an analog camera to take photos, then go darkroom to wash out their photo. nothing wrong with that, the world is suddenly becoming online connected, people like to snapshot with their smartphone and share it instantly to various social media channels.
The Internet and online is slowly becoming the 3rd utility after electricity and water. People spend a lot of the time online, for various activities, for working, entertainment, readings or others. Physical books end, or in the process of ending for being mainstream, it is the same for newspapers and printed magazines. People still enjoy that reading, but the online world sudden make reader aware the world is full of possibility now, same book content you can read from the physical book, you can read it from the digital ebook, or audiobook, or saw from youtube for someone share the content or others people sharing their lesson for a book, you can also do google search to get some ideas for whether worth to read a specific book or not.
With the books ending its value and standing in the current and future, libraries in the past really need to redefine its value and how to serve the current and future generation of readers.
A sudden thought in mind, end of books, so I write it down.