Why Books Are Still Powerful in the Digital Age

Some have decried it is the end of printed books. Quite the opposite. They are deeply rooted in our psyche and more.

Photo by Nick Hillier on Unsplash

One of my fondest childhood memories was going with my father to late night “press checks” at a printer (he was a publisher). The smell of fresh ink, the long printing press of rollers, gears and the spitting out of printed sheets at the very end, stacking up in rapid fire. The banter with the press operators, them a sort of mechanical magician to me. Then pouring over the test runs, ensuring the colour balance, little marks my dad would make to guide the next run on the proofs.

You might wonder why a digital anthropologist would find books so fascinating and still so important in an age filled with screens, instant access to the world’s knowledge and the ability to create content so fast. It is because I propose that digital content and printed books create a form of binary opposition that actually strengthens both forms. That both must coexist for humanity’s future. (this is aside from that fact I’m writing a book I want printed.)

Printed books today represent an interesting intersection of material culture, social practices and norms and technological evolution. Books also remain what we might call “data persistent”…