The end of writing?

Now and again I wonder if all of this reflective and interactive writing that happens on the internet via groupware, via email, via blogs and so on, might have a very limited lifespan, and in fact may already have had its heydey. Text is easily the most efficient means of transmitting meaning in terms of cost per byte, and that was a significant factor in the early days of electronic communications. But as the costs get driven drastically downwards such that the internet is ‘always on’ and audio and video transmission happens in realtime with unmetered cost, will writing survive?

An excerpt from the following paper thinks not:

A democracy of groups

There is no doubt that soon technology for groups — or visual and social software — will become mainstream and part of the familiar fabric of cyberspace. That cyberspace will look more and more like a videogame and less like the text–based Web we know today.

When – ( if?) the internet turns into a videogame I suppose there will still exist pockets of writers and readers trying to carry on behind the scenes of the main action, but we will be marginalised as we grow older and reduce in numbers. The videogamers will inherit the infrastructure and the old channels will eventual go silent and get switched off forever like analogue TV.

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