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david anderson
“[Contemporary designers] think today’s newspapers must shimmer with the excitement of a Yahoo home page,” Miner writes, “but it’s their function of consolidation and reflection that makes them, to many of us, still [worthwhile]. The Internet pelts us with news; a good newspaper arranges it in our heads.”
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But that’s the problem, not the key to a solution. Does anyone believe that modern-day mainstream Americans want (or are capable of comprehending) ideas “arranged in their heads?” Does anyone believe that “reflection” is anything but an anachronism in a hyper-stimulated, gizmo-saturated world? Just as Americans have become dumbed-down and had their attention spans shortened by 24/7 television, we’re now seeing their ability to summon ideas, images, and beauty from their imaginations threatened, if not annihilated, by the relentless “pelting” that is the very essence of the modern-day info-tech onslaught. If it doesn’t tweet, beep, flash, and shimmer, it’s boring; if it takes time, reflection, or silent contemplation, then it’s not worth pursuing.
Just as automobiles have rendered people too lazy to walk to the corner grocery store to buy a gallon of milk, new information technologies themselves will exacerbate their users’ dependency on them, because they will render people incapable of utilizing anything else.
I don’t think the electronic models really play out, either.
Proper and proven collection and payout models exist in other media.
