MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Future generations of e-book readers

Kumabjorn · 12-18-2011, 12:51 PM

A couple of days ago I went to the post office in order to exchange my drivers license, the office was closed so I had to wait almost an hour before it opened. About 20 min. before it opened a lady came in with her daughter who was approximately 16 or 18 years old. I was sitting there reading on my Kindle. After a little while she started to ask me if this was one of those famous tablet computers.

I told her it wasn't, it was a dedicated book reader. Something she had never heard about but she was clearly intrigued, she wanted to buy something similar for her daughter as a Christmas gift. The daughter did not look happy, she obviously wanted an iPad. Her main protest was that she couldn't watch movies on the Kindle. To this the mother objected that she hardly could afford to buy all the movies she wanted to watch on an iPad. "There are lots of free movies mother", was her reply.

This got me thinking, the generation that she belongs to is obviously of the mindset that media is freely available for no cost. The mother and I sort of shared a look and a slight nod both sayings simultaneously "there is no such thing as free media". So the daughter began talking about how many free MP3 songs she had downloaded just last week. Hence, it seems to me that we are raising a generation that thinks there is no need to pay for any kind of media. In my mind, the price we have paid for all the free MP3 songs out there is that the good songwriters turn to other endeavors such as writing film music or musicals rather than writing songs to be recorded and distributed on media.

Movies hasn't been available for download for as long as MP3 songs, so the changes hasn't been as far-reaching yet. Take the new HBO serious Luck, it stars Dustin Hoffman who as far as I know have never appeared in a TV series before. So is this perhaps the future for movies? They will all be made for cable channels?

This leads me to the question of what will happen to books in the future. If her generation expects books to be free in the future, who will write them? I believe it was Samuel Johnson who said "only a blockhead writes, except for money". Does that imply that in the future only blockheads will write?

12-18-2011, 12:51 PM	#1
Kumabjorn Basculocolpic Posts: 4,356 Karma: 20181319 Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Sweden Device: Kindle 3 WiFi, Kindle 4SO, Kindle for Android, Sony PRS-350 and PRS-T1	Future generations of e-book readers A couple of days ago I went to the post office in order to exchange my drivers license, the office was closed so I had to wait almost an hour before it opened. About 20 min. before it opened a lady came in with her daughter who was approximately 16 or 18 years old. I was sitting there reading on my Kindle. After a little while she started to ask me if this was one of those famous tablet computers. I told her it wasn't, it was a dedicated book reader. Something she had never heard about but she was clearly intrigued, she wanted to buy something similar for her daughter as a Christmas gift. The daughter did not look happy, she obviously wanted an iPad. Her main protest was that she couldn't watch movies on the Kindle. To this the mother objected that she hardly could afford to buy all the movies she wanted to watch on an iPad. "There are lots of free movies mother", was her reply. This got me thinking, the generation that she belongs to is obviously of the mindset that media is freely available for no cost. The mother and I sort of shared a look and a slight nod both sayings simultaneously "there is no such thing as free media". So the daughter began talking about how many free MP3 songs she had downloaded just last week. Hence, it seems to me that we are raising a generation that thinks there is no need to pay for any kind of media. In my mind, the price we have paid for all the free MP3 songs out there is that the good songwriters turn to other endeavors such as writing film music or musicals rather than writing songs to be recorded and distributed on media. Movies hasn't been available for download for as long as MP3 songs, so the changes hasn't been as far-reaching yet. Take the new HBO serious Luck, it stars Dustin Hoffman who as far as I know have never appeared in a TV series before. So is this perhaps the future for movies? They will all be made for cable channels? This leads me to the question of what will happen to books in the future. If her generation expects books to be free in the future, who will write them? I believe it was Samuel Johnson who said "only a blockhead writes, except for money". Does that imply that in the future only blockheads will write?