Will printed media ever go away?

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This is something I've been pondering for a while. Given how many publications and media have gone to digital print, it had me thinking: "Will printed, hard copy media ever go away?"

I think probably not. There are still people w/o any access to digital publication viewers, so there will probably always be a need for printed media.

I hope not. I can't deal with text walls, so I won't ever pick up Kindle or similar. It's a drag just to read the "look inside" on Amazon when the text is from the Kindle version. I need real pages.
Another plus is that printed media needs no electricity and will never go incompatible with newer systems. (That goes for pictures as well).

Digital readers are the most useless, environmentally damaging mass technology humans have ever invented. Where is the logic in replacing a renewable, biodegradeable product, with a plastic device that uses toxic batteries? An E-Reader has no real advantages over a paper book and it's horrible for the environment. I think they should be outlawed. People should stop worrying about that Chicken Little Global Warming nonsense and pay attention to the fact that we're choking our world with plastic and lithium. The sea level won't matter when the oceans are dead.

Some days I wish I could just order a custom hardcover print of all my favorite books. I even like the idea of an old Victorian style house, re do it ground up with new everything, but looking exactly as it did when it was first built. Then, amass the most extensive collection of rare hardcover books and graphic novels. I even dream of ordering a custom hardcover print of every non-hardcover book I adore. Think of it, hardcover manga, and other things not needing to actually be hardcover, it would be so AWESOME!

I think e-readers seem like the next step up, but there people who prefer printed for a variety of reasons. I prefer it because it gives my eyes a break and physical copies feel more special than a file.

Books are easier to read for extended periods of time and can't break in a backpack. I think I'll still with printed stuff for as long as I can.

I don't think so. Just visit Powell's Books in downtown Portland, you will see that printed media still alive and well.
It's one of the "must see" attractions in Portland Oregon, 6 levels of a city block, all books.
There will always be an appreciation for life in the physical universe.
The cyber world may have come to dominate most of our lives, but it can never fully replace the real world.

Nightmare scenario. How do you unpack a document done in some kind of electronic coding, where the coding scheme is 50 years obsolete. Unless there is a -written record- of how to decode the thing it is l-o-s-t.

Some printing and writing will not go away or MUST not go away.

Without the Rosetta Stone we could not have decoded ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics.

What is the Rosetta Stone for electronic codes a century or more out of date?

ruveyn

I like my Kobo. It weighs next to nothing, has an 8 week battery life. I can read it in bed with the light off without waking my wife. The screen is passive e-ink, it actually is an ink screen, so looks like paper with no glare at all.

I can carry as many books as I like and buy new ones without waiting for them to arrive in the post. I can share a book between multiple devices, so I can have the same book next to my bed, and in my work bag ready to go. I can even pick up the same book on my phone if I leave the Kobo somewhere.

I can search in text, I can email passages to myself.

The typical format is ePub which is a zip containing HTML. HTML is practically plaintext, and zip as a file format is very simple and isn't going anywhere. As long as there are computers it will be possible to unpack an ePub. If computers disappear we will have another set of problems.

I do have a house and still dont know anymore, where to put my books. I even have stacks of it in the bathroom. The cellar is full and the roof level as well, additionally, we will built a kids room in the roof level soon. My partner gifted me with an E-Book, because it definitly has one real advantages, it doesnt need tons of space. ^^

I still buy my favorite book series in "real-paper", but for the tons of other stuff I read its great. I think you underestimate the quantity of books people need, that actually read about 900 words a minute. ^^

About the threadstarters question: Nope, I dont see books and real good newspaper vanish. As mentioned, I still like to have my favorite series in realpaper around me. It simply gives me a cozy, lucky feeling, to see all my StarWars books, as well that seeing them reminds me of the stories in it. And reading a kindle in the bath sucks. ^^

Kindles in the bath do suck, but paper books are non-too waterproof either, and if you drop your Kindle you can recover the book from the cloud. Kobo costs £40 so it's not the end of the world if something bad happens to it.

I hope that this never happens. Aside from the fact that digital file formats are new, they are still in a fairly unstable state of flux, as is possibly the magnetic/optical media required.

I have yet to see digital media with the logetivity or archival qualities of say, the Gutenberg Bible, which is still readable.

Bingo! Exactly. We can still read the letters that Jefferson and Adams exchanged. But much e-mail, even important e-mail that is not hard copied may become untranslatable in the not too distant future.

Dark marks on a contrasting surface has been one of the best and most durable inventions of the human race.

ruveyn

I dont see it dying completely however its on the decline and still has a ways to go on its downward skid. My wife lost her job last spring, a print media company she'd been with for years. They are still in business, for now, but sales are way down and the writing is on the wall. Actually a good thing she got laid off when she did. Her job now is doing practically the same thing she had been, but for a digital based company.

As mentioned, the important stuff, I still prefer in "hardware". But I think the letters of the newest "Warcraft story book" hardly can be compared with the importancy of Jeffersons and Adams letters, so I´ll think coming generation will survive with the risk of never getting to know about the warcraft universe. ^^