PART 2

Threat or Promise?

Pessimists have 0. BEEN quick to lament the death of reading, predicting that increased exposure to new media would 9. an end to the practice as we know it. However, I would argue that, 10. anything, technology is boosting the dissemination of the written word via the internet and e-books, 11. to mention digital publishing platforms. These have been largely responsible for the proliferation of small publishing firms and self-publishing enterprises. In fact, in my opinion, 12. is the momentum and scope of these developments that we are currently faced with 13. could be termed a superabundance of reading choices.
What I 14. interesting about the doomsayers’ comments is not the accuracy of their predictions, but that their views so closely echo those of various self-appointed cultural guardians of the past. Some eighteenth-century intellectuals feared that mass literacy and cheaper books would compromise the quality of cultural life. More recently, 15. radio and television were seen as serious threats to creativity and highbrow pursuits. Now, as then, my 16. belief is that technological developments are far more likely to boost appreciation of reading and other intellectual pastimes.