The future of the written word

Ta-Nehisi Coates: I don’t think so. I think writing is always been challenging to make a career as a writer. I’m not convinced that it’s harder today than it was a hundred years ago. I’m certainly not convinced, as a black person, it was harder today than it was 50 years ago.

I’ve been going back through all the old archives out of New York. No black people writing. None. I’m not… I’m not trying to dish The New Yorker. You go back to The Atlantic, I see very few black people writing for The Atlantic. It is certainly not harder. And that’s such a huge part of my identity as an African-American.

My dad was a high school dropout who went off into the war. My mom grew up in the projects in West Baltimore. It’s very difficult for me to bemoan how hard it is for writers. It’s a very difficult thing.

I think, maybe the number of people who can do it will shrink so it maybe harder to do. I’m not totally sure that it’s a bad thing. I think writing should be hard. I think the only people who probably, at the end of the day, should be writing; maybe this is an overstatement, I don’t know. But I think, at the end of the day, the people who I want to read are the people who would be socially dysfunctional if they weren’t writing. I want to read people who need to write. When I go to see a film, I want to read somebody that needs to make movies. I want people who write like their life is dependent on it.

People who are halfway doing it should go walk on Wall Street or whatever. You should not be a sell out at writing. It doesn’t pay enough. And the work is too hard. And I’ve been in charge whether people will like it. Those people need another career, you know. It’s like being a sell out is being a teacher. Why? Why would you sell out and go teach? Go ruin kids lives? That’s what you’re going to?

So why sell out and be a writer? So I waste my life reading through your pad, awful halfway done stuff. No, no, no. It should be hard. It should be hard. The wages should be tough. And if you stick with it; it’s an endurance war, how bad do you want it?

I’m mostly a writer because I can’t do anything else. I don’t have any other skills. I mean, it’s all I ever wanted. And I’ve only been good at things that I really, really wanted in my life. I think that’s a good thing. I actually do.

Question: Thoughts on Twitter?

Ta-Nehisi Coates: I don’t Twitter. I don’t Twitter. I have nothing against Twitter. I need more space when I’m disconnected from the world. I don’t need to be more connected, virtually. I need to be more connected with regular people. I need to be less connected virtually. I’m not a luddite. Obviously, I’m a blogger so I’m not completely against it.

I need as much time as possible, disconnected.

I hate traveling because I miss my family terribly. One of the great things about traveling though is the complete sort of disconnect while you’re on a plane. That’s a great thing. I need more of that.

Recorded on: March 19, 2009

These are difficult times for the written word, particularly with regard to brand communication and the new languages adopted by the media, including social networks. In an era dominated by the overwhelming power of visual communication, there is a real risk that the word will take a back seat, as if it were an annoying and cumbersome element, leading to a progressive loss of interest on the part of users who nowadays surf the Internet and social networks.

The decline in interest in the written word is not surprising. Faced with the aesthetic and communicative power of a video or an image, the word has already lost out. The fruition of a content based on visual elements is in fact much simpler, much less demanding than a written text, and will therefore require less time for the user to process it and to move on to the next action, which in the hopes of brands and companies should almost always be a purchase (or at least a concrete demonstration of interest, such as subscribing to the newsletter or liking content published online).

The advantage of brevity

Communication experts have no doubt: social media posts should be short, sparse, and iconic. If they don’t have words, even better. In a society where people read fewer and fewer books, and where reading newspapers has become a luxury for the few, people are systematically getting used to no longer considering the written word as the main means of communication, putting the enjoyment of a film or the pleasantness of a striking image first. We’re even losing the habit of writing text messages with our cell phones, as the possibility of sending voice audio or short video clips seems much more attractive, much simpler and immediate (as if writing a text message involved an unbearable waste of time).

For brands and companies, all this has a very precise meaning: the predominance of visual content over textual content has completely revolutionized their way of communicating, forcing them to hire professionals they didn’t need before. That’s why companies are increasingly hiring people skilled in editing and making movies, or professionally editing photos and images with popular software like Photoshop. The fate of an entire company nowadays is also partly linked to the effectiveness and power of its visual communication, and no longer depends solely on the form and content of a written text. Texts are now used almost exclusively for press releases, newsletters or longer textual content to be sent to magazines or specialized sites.

The future of written communication 

What most companies ignore, however, is that the word is far from dead. Those who know how to use it wisely and intelligently are able to penetrate much more deeply into the consciousness of their audience, sowing traces and impressions that a video or an image would never be able to produce. We are of course referring to storytelling and its use in online communication strategies, including on social networks. A long post, even composed of more than ten lines, is still able to produce stunning effects, especially if it is used to describe the emotional or value aspects of the company, without focusing on the product. In fact, it is necessary to find the ability to identify potential sources for a successful company story, capable of producing a high number of interactions on social networks and, above all, of depositing a deep impression in the reader’s soul, a feeling of pleasantness that is then always transformed into a concrete appreciation. And for insiders, the creation of this kind of post can turn into real fun, a complex and exciting challenge.

Finding the right sources of fun requires well-trained intuition. On online gambling portals such as VegasSlotsOnline, entire teams of professionals have put together the best online casinos in the UK, offering each player a wide selection of casino games to enjoy easily and safely. Each site is carefully studied by the team of experts at the disposal of the platform, who study its reputation, the punctuality of payments and especially the reliability, with the aim of providing its users with only a selection of the best online sites dedicated to this kind of entertainment.

The new languages of communication, if used properly, are able to arouse indescribable emotions, comparable only to those of the most unbridled fun. These are authentic sensations that spring from one of the most hidden recesses of our soul, where our original creativity is located.

During the last 1,500 years, the written word has undergone fairly gradual changes,
evolving with the times. With the introduction of electronics, however, change has
accelerated at unprecedented rates. Today, we face the advent of a new form of the written
word: the electronic book. Four companies have developed electronic books that are due out
this year. These books have some widely dissimilar features; all consist of at least one
backlit screen, a rechargeable battery, and some type of storage device, but here the
similarities end. Since this technology is so new, there are no current standards for file
format, storage media, display size, power, or book distribution. Likewise, there is
little agreement on the issue of copyright protection.

The Books

The SoftBook uses flash memory to hold 100,000 pages of text and pictures. It
features a single 9.5″ backlit black-and-white touch screen with variable font sizes.
It includes a built-in 33.6 Kbps modem which it uses to connect to the SoftBookstore,
allowing users to download books at a rate of 100 pages per minute. The rechargeable
lithium ion battery of the SoftBook will last 5 hours on a one-hour charge.

The RocketBook can hold 4,000 pages of text and graphics in its memory. Its
single black-and-white screen consists of a hybrid active- and passive-matrix LCD. The
screen is also touch sensitive, allowing the user to highlight, annotate, link, bookmark,
and reference text. Books are obtained via a PC from various Web bookstores. After the
user downloads the books onto their computer, they can arrange them in their
«personal library» and transfer books to the RocketBook via a serial cable. The
RocketBook’s rechargeable nickel metal hydride battery can last up to 45 hours if the
the backlit screen capability is not used, or 20 hours using the backlit screen.

The Everybook Dedicated Reader is able to hold up to 100 college textbooks or
1,000 novels on its removable disk cartridge. The display consists of two high-resolution,
backlit, touch-sensitive LCD screens. Users have full annotation capabilities, as well as
bookmarking and a built-in dictionary. Books are downloaded from the Everybook Store using
the modem inside the Everybook. The battery of the Everybook lasts 4 to five hours on a
full charge.

The Millenium Reader has a non-volatile memory that can hold approximately ten
books at a time. It features a single backlit black-and-white screen with a proprietary
bitmapped design that allows the reader to adjust font size and type. The screen is
controlled by four buttons located beneath the screen. Books are downloaded through the
Internet from the Librius World Library onto a PC, then transferred to the Millenium
Reader through a serial port. The Reader will last for up to 18 hours on a single charge.

The Issues

It is obvious from the current electronic book specifications that standards and
interoperability need to be discussed in order for electronic books to get past the
novelty stage. All four of the readers mentioned use different hardware, software, and
means of obtaining electronic books. It is easy to think of the problems that could arise
from this lack of industry standards; a replay of the VHS versus Beta debate could easily
happen in this industry if the problem is not addressed. This is where an electronic book
workshop can assist the e-book industry.

If the current issues are to be resolved, we need an exchange of ideas among computer
industry leaders, portable storage manufacturers, display manufacturers, electronic book
developers, touch-screen manufacturers, personal digital assistant manufacturers,
information technology experts, online bookstores, publishers, and teachers. We need to
know more about current e-book concepts and prototypes, GUI interfaces and software for
electronic books, storage devices for electronic content, standards and interoperability
for electronic books, and applications of flat panel displays for electronic book readers.

The Workshop

We want to draw your attention to a workshop that will focus on e-books and the issues
surrounding their use. On October 8 and 9, 1998, the National Institute of Standards
and Technology (NIST), along with the Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA), will
host Electronic Book ’98: Turning a New Page
in Knowledge Management. This workshop will focus on hand-held electronic
books and portable devices that integrate displays and storage media for new forms of
learning, work, and personal management. The goal of the workshop is to illustrate the
current and future capabilities of a hand-held electronic book (e-book) and to identify
issues relating to standards and interoperability for this emerging technology.

NIST has created an electronic book—JANUS. Features of JANUS include dual-touch
sensitive color displays, annotation capability, dictionary lookup, and removable storage
media. The purpose of the NIST prototype electronic book is to highlight user functions
desirable in a commercial electronic book. NIST leaders want JANUS to serve as a test
platform from which to develop consensus-based industry standards.

Illustrating the features of all the electronic books will not be an easy task, but it
is necessary in order to provide building blocks for the electronic book industry and to
ensure that electronic books become the newest tools for information management and
dissemination. If this is to occur, agreement must be reached quickly as to what features
are necessary and desired in an electronic book, and standards for obtaining and reading
books must be discussed. The electronic book stands ready to take over as the next stage
of the written word. First, though, the industry must pool its disparate ideas and
conceptions into one common vision; in order to effect the next great change in
communication, industry leaders must communicate.