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Originally Posted by vivaldirules
Digitally-delivered words may be much more common in 10 years but this is like predicting we'll have flying cars in a few more years. It's just not practical for everyone to have a digital device to read content with. If I'm at the grocery store and want to buy a magazine and don't have my latest Sony Reader (or whatever) with me, how am I going to buy it? Do you think they won't have any for sale?
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I don't think it's beyond reasonable that in 10 years, everyone (in developed countries, anyway) will have a content-reading device with them at all times. Or, in those cases when you read on a dedicated reader that you don't have with you, you might download the electronic contents of the periodical into whatever you do have on you (like a cellphone) and transfer it when you get home.
I think it's safe to say that the role of paper in our daily lives may be seriously curtailed by the realities of sustainable forestry, production and transportation, etc, in the future. Maybe paper won't disappear, but its more wasteful uses might be replaced... and periodicals like magazines and newspapers, which often tend to be thrown out almost immediately upon being read, are one of the most wasteful of paper uses.
Quote:
Originally Posted by vivaldirules
And what about (dare I ask?) DRM and the protection of intellectual property and the multiplicity of hardware devices and digital formats? Does anyone think those problems will somehow evaporate allowing for the great proliferation of digital words?
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Obviously still has to be worked on...