Saakal Ulysses Dewan
What is this life if full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare,
— William Henry Davies
“You don’t have to burn books to destroy culture. Just get people to stop reading them.” – Ray Bradbury
The invention of printing press by Johannes Gutenberg, a German craftsman in 1448 marked a watershed moment in the history of human civilization. For the first time, the device made it possible for the common people to have access to books which meant that they would have the unprecedented ability to accumulate knowledge. The rapid progress of human race measured in terms of advancement made in the field of science, art, literature and philosophy was made possible only due to the printing press that is why it is often regarded as the most revolutionizing invention after fire and wheel in the human history. The rapid diffusion and dissemination of knowledge spurt by the printing press led to establishment of numerous universities across the Europe which served as fountainhead of wisdom for the Western world. If scientific progress was made possible by the press, it was also responsible for major political and religious upheavals that changed the destinies of monarchs and nations. Wisdom of classical Hellenic philosophy could be taught in the universities, and philosophers like Voltaire and Rousseau influenced the French Revolution that gave birth to ideals of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity that we today hold so dear. Even the American Revolution known for the famous Declaration of Independence which guaranteed equal rights of man was influenced by the writings of John Locke. The Declaration later on went to inspire many similar documents to guide independent nations in Europe, Latin America and Africa. With wide availability of literature, our society became more progressive and responsive to the changes brought about by human ingenuity. Even our freedom fighters were inspired by the protagonists of these revolutions in their struggle against British rule. As it is said prison can only hold the physical body of a prisoner but not his ideas, the ruling establishments were known to be scared of ideas propagated by the press. Today we come across terms like media gag and propaganda war that seek to serve the interest of the ruling dispensation all by manipulating the all powerful media. The saying that the ideas rule the world is best exemplified by the printing press. So powerful and effective was the impact of printing press on the development of the Renaissance, Reformation and humanist movement in the Europe that it was regarded as the single most factor to help usher the human history from medieval era to early modern period. Little wonder then Gutenberg was hailed as the Man of the Millennium by the prestigious Time Magazine in 1999.
Thanks to the positive impact of the revolution brought about by the printing press, today we live in a knowledge society where knowledge moves along the fast lane of information superhighway characterized by data generation, processing and consumption at a hurried pace. The modern generation is forced to catch up with the advancement of technology and anything static is condemned to the world of obsolescence mocked and jeered by the newbies. If printing press had dominated the intellectual space of human society in the medieval ages, today, the computers and smartphones are influencing the way we read and write. Strange enough, the voluminous encyclopedia that filled the shelves of huge libraries are contained in a small compact disc or even smaller memory drives. The data processing speed and storage capacity have outpaced the Moore’s Law yet the moot question today arises is- has our innate curiosity been able to match with the breakneck speed flow of the information technology? As a member of knowledge society, today we are living in a level playing field-thanks to all knowing Google that has ensured no knowledge is an exclusive preserve of elite and privileged class as it used to be before the advent of internet. What is taught in Oxford or Harvard can be accessed by a village school student at his fingertips without any hassle. The discrimination and barrier imposed by the privileged class are removed by the technology that only knows to advance and evolve irrespective of race, color and gender of its creator. That is why we have Indians like Sundar Pichai as the CEO of the search engine giant Google or Satya Narayana Nadella as the CEO of Microsoft that made Windows so common and indispensable that we cannot think of modern life without it. Now the technology is advancing so rapidly that we are staring at a society dominated by the Artificial Intelligence and automation where much smarter devices would be taking control of our lives- a frightening prospect to ponder on. In the backdrop of such developments, now the important question that arises is how prepared are we to live in such futuristic society. Given the poor trend of our hill people in keeping abreast of events happening around them and lack of reading culture, it will only result in social maladjustment problems in the future. The loss of appetite for reading classics is creating a unique class of literate idiots. Our modern generation is so much hooked on to the powerful smartphones that their lives are being seriously affected, both socially and psychologically. On an average, it has been found by a survey reported by The Times of India that an individual spends 4.8 hrs a day on mobiles. The time taken for reading is consumed by the mobile usage. The habit of reading is going down among children, they prefer to go online while searching books. Children are getting addicted to cartoons and games so easily available on today’s hand held devices. The usage of mobiles have affected them psychologically causing loss of concentration and patience and is posing a serious social challenge for us. It is disturbing to learn that time on social media has displaced the time that once was spent enjoying a book. According to a report published by American Psychological Association in 2019, less than 20% of US teens were found to be reading book while more than 80% were using social media. If we do random survey of today’s youths, hardly we may find E Book reader apps on their smartphones as most of them would be of gaming and other entertainment apps. This is a serious issue confronted by our society. Today it is sad to see less attendance in libraries and subscribers to educational apps at a time when we are best suited to leverage the technology to acquire knowledge in a never seen manner. The diminishing visitors to libraries and dwindling business of leading booksellers, magazines and newspapers confirm the growing apathy of our society towards books. Modern youths have forgotten that book reading not only nourishes the soul but rejuvenates human intellect in probing things deeper, analyzing issues, providing guidance as it enables the mind to think over a subject and make informed decisions. Youth showing disinterest in reading is a matter of grave concern. Reading a book in a corner has become an archaic idea today due to onslaught of digital technology. However technology is a double-edged sword, hence it can be used for better and productive purpose. Technology has been so kind to us by providing apps like E Book reader and Kindle that we can read while we are on the move- the privilege that was denied to our forefathers who had to carry bulky books whenever they had to travel. It must be borne in mind that everyone possessing a smartphone is a potential digital creator and an agent of change who can make an impact on his society with greater certainty than his predecessors. Technology is not only a commodity to be consumed but reciprocally it can also consume us if we do not update ourselves like the ubiquitous apps that require frequent updation. We must remember that no advancement of technology can replace our innate curiosity for the higher things and unknown or can teach us morality that govern our day to day life. It is in essence, ethically neutral. Before it becomes advanced enough to manipulate human emotions by re-engineering our gene and neural programming structure, our duty is to carry on the timeless wisdom of ancients and maintain the continuity of human tradition that is so unique. Apart from reading, preserving the tradition like story telling amongst our modern children also requires urgent attention. It must be borne in mind that no matter how marvelous the technology is, it can never replicate our sense to appreciate the beauty of nature, nor can it challenge our liking for art, music and poetry. But it nevertheless has the potential to make people emotionally sterile by addicting them to a new dimension of communication and entertainment that is fast, short-lived and amorphous.
Our generation should inculcate the habit of reading and appreciating arts and music as it is what makes us human. Our ability to feel, reflect and express should not be mechanized or digitised. We should be master of our technology and not the other way round. Advent of smartphones has seriously affected our families and hence our societies, so today we stand not only on the cusp of digital revolution but also of psychological revolution with social repercussions. So it becomes incumbent upon the parents, schools and other social institutions to sensitise the people on the importance of reading habit. It is said that a reader lives a thousand lives but the man who never reads lives only once, so we should not sacrifice the luxury of reading at the altar of fast evolving technology. History is witnessed to the fact that scholars, philosophers, writers and poets held esteemed position in the courts of monarchs. The elites were those who had knowledge of art, literature, history, politics, philosophy and religion and not the ones having heaps of wealth. In older times, people used to be proud of their collection of books and size of libraries. People with literary taste commanded huge respect and were looked upon as role models in their society.
Despite the flip side of technological revolution, reading habits may have diminished in our society but not vanished in totality, interestingly it has mutated to a different mode like the Kindle reader and audio books. In fact, Project Gutenberg has come up with a revolutionary concept of sharing and reading books through its repository of over 60000 free eBooks available online. And as the Gutenberg’s printing press did not signal the end of primitive handwritten messages, so too computers and smart devices will not wipe out the traditional habit of reading books. Technology will coexist with the traditional book reading culture for Kindle and e-books do not provide the bibliosmia that a bibliophile gets attracted to. Reading is a globally recognized intellectual and cultural activity and it is here to stay albeit influenced and augmented by the spillover effects of modern technology. The pleasure of reading being both entertaining and empowering would continue to pave the course of our future because the adage “Today’s reader is tomorrow’s leader” holds good now in our society even more pronouncedly.
courtesy : Aksharhaat, published by the Local Library Authority, Darjeeling
[Mr. Saakal Ulysses Dewan is a Darjeeling based poet who has been awarded Poet of the Year in 2022 by Ukiyoto Publishing and International Excellence Award in the category of poets conferred by the Exceller Books based in Kolkatta for his debut anthology And Quiet Flows the Teesta & Other Poems. A former Navy man, he spends his time in social activism and sports promotion in his locality when not writing.]
