http://pubfrontier.com/2007/12/12/lessing-loves-the-old-ones/ A raucous public discussion of the publishing revolution. Wed, 07 Jan 2009 12:14:41 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.5 http://pubfrontier.com/2007/12/12/lessing-loves-the-old-ones/#comment-22 Phil Friedman Wed, 19 Dec 2007 19:34:28 +0000 http://pubfrontier.com/2007/12/12/lessing-loves-the-old-ones/#comment-22 The key point here is Anderson's comment "What needs to be avoided is the content, online and off, that is little more than pabulum spoonfed to those who want fare just rich enough to keep them from boredom.…" The problem is just that--Internet searching lends itself spendidly to such pablum, especially to unsophisticated audiences, in ways that long-form media like books does not (not, of course, to "fetishize" books). Locating information on the Internet is easy, but validating the information's validity is near-impossible. The key point here is Anderson’s comment “What needs to be avoided is the content, online and off, that is little more than pabulum spoonfed to those who want fare just rich enough to keep them from boredom.…” The problem is just that–Internet searching lends itself spendidly to such pablum, especially to unsophisticated audiences, in ways that long-form media like books does not (not, of course, to “fetishize” books). Locating information on the Internet is easy, but validating the information’s validity is near-impossible.

]]> http://pubfrontier.com/2007/12/12/lessing-loves-the-old-ones/#comment-11 Bill Janssen Wed, 12 Dec 2007 21:26:46 +0000 http://pubfrontier.com/2007/12/12/lessing-loves-the-old-ones/#comment-11 I think Anderson subtly misses the point of Lessing's speech here. She clearly thinks that the habit of reading (and reading long-form text -- books -- not letters or blog posts or Wiki pages) shapes the mind in ways which are important to thinking and communicating clearly. Just a few years ago no one would have thought this controversial. I think Anderson subtly misses the point of Lessing’s speech here. She clearly thinks that the habit of reading (and reading long-form text — books — not letters or blog posts or Wiki pages) shapes the mind in ways which are important to thinking and communicating clearly. Just a few years ago no one would have thought this controversial.

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