GETTIN' AT THE KINDLE- Media Meditation #3

The picture shown displays Jeff Bezos advertising Amazon's new Kindle on the cover of Newsweek Magazine. The Kindle is a fairly new device that allows people to download and read books on a small, thin, and light device. It also has the ability to download documents as well as connect to the internet. The Kindle combines many media platforms into one small device, and is a clear aesthetic shift from discrete to convergence.There's a definite convenience aspect of the Kindle that makes it appealing. But I think the Kindle has taken the world of media convergence too far.

We live in world where our technological devices are constantly changing and being updated. Computers, ipods, and cell phones have each been changing since they were created. Not one single technological device stays the same for very long, and we as society have become accustomed to that and we embrace that change because we are used to it. But changing the form of books is something that

Photo from worldpress.com has yet to be messed around with.

As a young-adult, I grew up in the generation when technology took off. As a generation we have been the guinea pigs for all the new technological devices that are placed on the market. We're expected to keep up with all these new advancements as the " technology generation", and be able to use them on day to day basis in school and the workforce. So when the Kindle threatens to take the ONE technology free aspect of media away from us- we're naturally going to put up a fight. There is wholesome feeling associated with books. Reading a book engages our sense of touch when we hold it, our sense of smell when we walk into a library- both emotional aspects of books that make reading them so important- and both which the Kindle lacks.

THIS KINDLE VS. BOOKS VIDEO FURTHER PROVES THE KINDLE CANNOT REPLACE BOOKS- AND DOES SO THROUGH THE USE OF COMEDY- CHECK IT OUT!

The idea that the Kindle could possibly take the place of physical books is both scary and depressing, and says something sad about what technology has done to our society. The Kindle shows the personal shift created by technology and media in our society. So much of it has moved from personal to participatory, that we seek out the participatory devices and stray away from the personal ones like books. When I think about being a child and having books read to me, I cannot possibly imagine having that been done on a Kindle. The action of a baby pointing at a big picture in a book and smiling, or learning to turn the page by themselves is not something that could done on a Kindle.

Losing special moments like that because we're to lazy to go out and buy books is depressing to me, and something I can honestly say I hope I never have to witness in my lifetime. The Kindle expresses our societies obsession with convenience. There are so many parts of reading that are lost through the Kindle that out weigh convenience aspect. Because of this- I believe that books will never make the move to being fully digital- books are too unique to be portrayed correctly in any form but their original.