"I Read Where I Am. Exploring New Information Cultures" - читать интересную книгу автора (Various)

4. I Read More Than Ever – Erwin Blom

I like reading. I’m crazy about print. Everyday, two newspapers fall onto the doormat, every week I buy a pile of magazines during my weekly trip along the shops. But I read each of the publications less and less. In the early morning, I can better look at Internet for current information rather than in the newspaper that went to the printers half a day ago. And for depth, I can better visit specialist sites than read magazines that wrestle every month with a scarcity of pages. No matter how much I love the printed media, I increasingly experience that they offer me insufficient added value. I am slowly saying farewell to something which has always been so dear to me.

For digital media can be text and image and sound. With digital media I can chat online with other people about the subjects that interest me. With digital media I can get customized content and therefore more of what fascinates me and less of what doesn’t interest me. And digital media are dynamic and can be current at any moment.

As far as newspapers and magazines are concerned, publishers see new distribution channels such as iPads as possibilities to repeat their old trick one more time in a new packaging. It doesn’t work. It doesn’t work anywhere. Of course people buy Wired or de Volkskrant out of curiosity, but after an initial optimism, the numbers sold have drastically dropped.

It is as logical as can be, but not, apparently, for the publishers of paper. In an environment with new possibilities, I do not want to be confronted with old limitations. I want my media to be diverse (also audio and video), I want my media to be up-to-date (latest information always available), I want my media to be social (be able to share content with people), and I want my media customized (matching my interests).

Is it dreadful that people are reading less, but are getting informed in other ways? No, of course not. Is it dreadful that the reading behaviour of people is changing? No, of course not. The people that think that only a doorstop of a book can provide depth and that a summary of short messages and interactions on Twitter has no substance, have done nothing more than take a cursory view of things. Adding everything together – blogs, Twitter, mail, Facebook etcetera – I read more than ever, but increasingly less with those parties that used to have exclusive rights to reading matter.

Erwin Blom is founder of The Crowds, a company specialized in social media.