Books have been changed in a very similar way, I am able to access more books than I could ever read for free online either through audio-books, PDFs, etc. Not only am I able to access all of this information in the form of books, but I also have access to more information than I could ever read that takes the form of news, Wikipedia articles, Scientific papers/studies, etc.
The internet has created a system in which there is little or no reason to pay for access to almost any form of information. There is however an important emphasis that I need to make here, and that is to emphasize the word access, I may look up Tchaikovsky's violin concerto on Youtube and enjoy access to an excellent quality orchestra performing the piece of music, but that access to the music via my laptop could never compare to actually attending a live symphony or orchestra at a hall of art and music. I may look up a facsimile of Van Gogh's Starry Night, which I have included in this post, but my experience of Van Gogh's work will not be the same as if I had seen the actual painting.
You make a very good point here. You can access almost anything online which is very convenient, especially for us poor college students. But what about the quality? Especially in writing. I'm going to be little bit of a hypocrite and admit that I really like reading fan fiction which is a free online reading resource. But the more I learn about english and especially editing the less I can stand the generally low quality of fan fiction. I have to dig for the few well-written jewels which can be time consuming and frustrating. Most free writing on the internet seems to follow that same pattern. I buy books because someone has already gone through effort of reading through the slush pile and finding the good stuff. so instead of spending my time I choose to spend my money.
ReplyDeleteAlso, artists have to eat. If no one bought what the artists produced than they would stop producing. Because artists have to eat. and even if their art is their passion it will become a hobby if they can't use their passion to support themselves.
I really like how you described access it makes a lot of sense.