Is the book going to die?

In the age of the digital technology  and access to the Internet wherever we are, we spend less and less time on reading books on paper. Brought-up among electrical devices, we find it difficult and almost impossible to live a single day without using a mobile phone or personal computer. Therefore, modern people prefer the convenience of an online edition of a certain book than its paper version. Is this wrong? Will the Internet book replace the traditional one?

Not long ago on the market emerged a new reading books device called 'Kindle'. With the size of a small notebook, the new kindle can store more than 75,000 books and offers its beholder access to them all over the world.

The new way of reading offers convenience because it is compact. And, as everything new and innovative, it gives rise to people's interest. But is not only the creation of something new that determines its future use and the end of using the devices before it.
Example of that is the printing press. Johannes Gutenberg invented it in the 15th century and even though it was a completely new device that produced books and newspapers faster, people in England started to read more during the 17th century. It is not only the existence of certain technology , but also the social, political, cultural and demographical factors that define the use and popularity of something.
People from the young generation may prefer the technology than the traditional books because they have used technical devices all their lives. However, there are people who prefer the old, traditional paper book. Moreover, there are people who collect books as a hobby.

A fact which confirms that the books is not going to die is that people still publish books. Since most of the economies today are based on commercialism, nobody would invest in a non-profitable business.

Are Search Engines Really Fair?

Today we use search engines without even thinking how they work and pick up the information we look for. We don't really know how they select and put into order the sites that contain the key words we wrote.

One of the most famous search engines is Google . When we type the key words of our search in the space provided , we get thousands of hundreds of pages as results.  Then how does Google select in what order to show the results?
If we watch a video provided by people, who work for Google and try to make it as efficient as possible, we understand that the first shown results are those that have more repetition of our key words in their content, the key words are in the title or in the URL address. How Google works
However, it is not a well-known fact that some companies pay in order to get their pages in front of the others and in that way when we type certain words, which may not be so much used in their website, they appear in front of the others.

That small trick makes it a bit unfair for people, who cannot afford to pay to get their pages among the first pages. This can lead to loss or disfavour of new, interesting and innovative information, which is published in a personal blog or personal website, page, etc.

Is the Immersion Good or Bad Think ?

Before we could say whether the immersion is a positive or negative, we should make clear what immersion actually is.

What does it mean to be immersed? It is a state where we as real individuals experience a new way of perceiving the world because of a certain type of technology that blurs our understanding of what is real and what is virtual.

 

There are several types of immersion - tactical, strategic, narrative and spatial immersion. The most interesting of them is the spatial one because it is when one is so immersed that s/he actually forgets about the real world. Today that is possible because most of the game producers, for example, sell 3D glasses, gloves with sensor that can catch every move and consequently that move reflects on the screen and many other such devices.

What is more, an example of the use of the immersion is Char Davies’ Osmose, which is a virtually constructed environment that takes real people to a 3D walk among the nature. It has a display and motion tracking device that tracks the breathing and the movements.

 

The problem with such kind of high level of immersion and inability to distinguish between real and virtual is that it is a bit addictive. People may prefer the virtual reality instead of the real one. And since the graphics and the pictures resemble the reality to the tiniest detail it is very easy to get addicted. Moreover, in games we chose characters who look like us in some ways and start to live a new, virtual life through the character. Example of that is Second Life or The Sims - games that resemble the reality.

Since virtual reality is becoming more and more popular as a form of entertainment, we should enjoy it but with the clear notion that it is not the real life and it is just a state of mind that combines both real in virtual in order to give as a little pleasure.