The Power of Books

After reading The Gutenberg Elegies, I have more of an understanding about the impacts of technology on society, and how it is slowly but steadily displacing the written word. We are living in a world today that is much different from the world of several decades ago, and it takes a lot to adjust to and keep up with modern ways of life. Books are definitely not as valued as they were in the past, but I believe this is because technology is so advanced that people forget about how much books can offer. In my mind, books can provide people with a whole new perspective on life, in which they can sit in a comfortable chair and delve into the world of others. Books can make people feel like they are inside the other character’s minds, a feeling that can never be taken away from literature, no matter how “dead” it may be. There might be a big shift due to the bombardment of technology, but people will always remember the value that books have and the good things that people acquire from reading. Although I have never been very big in to reading, I respect the people who take great pleasure in sitting with a book in lap.

Birkerts explains that the key concept behind reading revolves around one concept: wisdom. In “The Owl Has Flown,” he describes wisdom, “not as the gathering or organizing of facts,” but as, “seeing through facts,” (75). Being able to analyze what we read, not just absorb it, is the most important part of reading. He believes this is a lost art because of the wave of technology that is making us read quickly instead of analytically. This is a very interesting point because many people do their reading on the internet, where they go from one link to the next, and don’t take the time to carefully think about what they read. Wisdom is the underlying force that has the power to help us think the way we did when technology wasn’t such a dominant force in our lives.

After reading the book, I have definitely acquired a new perspective about digital technology. Although I support the advancements that have been made over the past several years, I believe that technology takes a little bit out of the individual. Many people rely on technology too much to give them answers, and they don’t think for themselves and learn their innate abilities. Everyone was born with some sort of talent, and people should have the chance to learn their talents instead of asking technology for the answers first. As I read in the future, I will pay more attention to the deeper meaning in the book rather than simply absorbing the facts. I feel that this is an important thing to do in order to become more intellectual. Although I don’t enjoy reading all of the time, I still understand the power a book has to create a whole new world for people and provide an escape from the real world to the textual world.