Books on Cell Phones; It's Working in Japan

[John Dishon]

Ran across this article today on Digg. The article explains how in Japan books are becoming popular on cell phones. But more importantly, the article addresses what I believe is the main reason reading is losing ground to other media:

"People, especially young people, prefer media created by peers or artists, or writers they perceive to be peers."

I think books on cell phones is a kick ass idea. What does everyone else think about the views put forth in this article?

[I. J. Parker]

Nah! Kids don't know what's what. And just how much text will they consume on a cell phone? This sort of thing will impact on the very form of fiction, and they will shortly outgrow the fad.
I'm mildly interested in Kindle.

[John Dishon]

"And just how much text will they consume on a cell phone?"--Well, the article states that five of the top ten books in Japan (that's printed books) last year started out on cell phones. So apparently people consumed a lot of text on cell phones, at least enough to generate interest from the publishing companies. This also means that cell phones actually promoted the sales of printed books. So no one is suggesting that a digital medium will replace printed books, so I don't see how it would change the very form of fiction. It would simply provide another option.

If kids don't know what's what, then their parents must know even less. Given the state the world, and in particular, America is in, I can't see how the older generation has had any wisdom at all. And if said older generation doesn't think the young people can manage the world, then they have themselves to blame for not teaching my generation well enough and for not providing my generation with the skills and knowledge needed to succeed.

Though my generation is happy with the challenge, and I think it is significant to talk about where I found this article. It was on Digg, which is a social bookmarking site where people vote on, or digg, the stories they like, and those they don't like are buried. Reddit is another such site. Go on either of those sites and look at what kind of stories people are "digging". Politics, science, technology, and yes some ridiculous videos some time. The fact that I found a story about books on the front page (and it's not the only one I've seen. The "Diggers" attacked Steve Jobs for his recent comments too) along with real news about politics, the kinds of controversial or objective stuff the mainstream media doesn't cover these days, is telling. People are reading as much as ever, and I don't think literature on digital media is a fad.

Of course, change is always resisted, yet change always comes regardless. Those who resist the change go the way of the dinosaurs. The publishing industry seems to be going that way. If literature is to be saved from being buried under other media which is currently dominating, it will be the younger generation which will save it. It's my generation, which, in the near future, will be buying most of the books, and if we don't capture the interest of people now, reading will only deteriorate. The way to capture interest is to integrate literature into the merging technologies. Blogging, cell phones, social-bookmarking sites, the internet in general, are all ways to do this. If you leave it to the older generation, we'll just have more of the same (notice how Clinton and McCain are the frontrunners with older people, while Obama and Paul hold much more sway with young voters).

[John Dishon]

Here's the article from The New York Times about novels on cell phones in Japan.

[I. J. Parker]

Okay, I had a look at the article and it said pretty much what I thought: romance novels with very short sentences that lend themselves to texting are typed in by young women with dexterous thumbs. :)
My point is that the texting generation will grow up and want something better to read.
By the way, Japanese students have had a better education than American students -- which may explain their interest in reading books.

[John Dishon]

"My point is that the texting generation will grow up and want something better to read."--Probably true for a lot of people. And I think they will be able to because I don't think literature is going to be altered to the point where the sparse style of cellphone novels will be all that there is. But, like one cellphone novel author said in one of those articles, hopefully it will be considered as another style or genre.