the Cento

With the Cento’s expansion online, now seems a good time to consider the implications of the wide trend of switching from paper to electronic format.

As any college student knows, it is not just newspapers making the move — online databases have been around for as long as any of us have been in college, and the need for the actual books on the library shelves is arguably diminishing. Electronic devices such as Amazon’s Kindle replace print and bound copies of recreational novels, and written letters are virtually nonexistent. Have these changes been beneficial to the college community or society at large?

Yes, it must be admitted, even by the sentimentally-inclined, that they have. Still, I cannot help but carry a feeling of loss as I head to a library computer rather than the bookshelves. Yet what is really being lost?

Not time. We spend just seconds typing keywords to reveal long lists of relevant sources on online databases — far less time than it takes to find the book on the shelf, find the page numbers and check out a book. Plus, search options enable students to narrow in on the topic of research. Sharing information becomes far easier; just email a link or attachment.

These tools allow students to write papers and discuss findings faster. Checking campus news no longer requires a walk to the post office or Campus Center in order to pick of a copy of the Cento. And of course, the time it takes to send and receive an email is significantly shorter than the time it takes to write and mail a letter. Electronic media is all about saving time.

It is not trees, either. An online version of a newspaper is, naturally, paperless. The same page provides any number of people with information, and there is no need to give each of these people a slice of tree with their news. The same can be said for using a Kindle. Virtual pages save trees, and these devices are good for the environment (excluding the power it takes to run them).

Is it money, then? The Kindle may be more expensive than your average book, but books cost less purchased through this device. Ultimately, you may find yourself spending less money on your reading habit as physical materials cease to be a necessity of publication. Emails save that cost of the stamp and envelope. The cost of newspapers as they continue their online transformation is undetermined, but it seems unlikely that online costs will exceed those of their material counterparts.

There appears to be no practical argument left for continuing to produce media in its paper form. That sense of loss must be gained from something beyond the practical. So the question follows: is there any purpose in keeping a form for sentimental reasons?

I would argue yes. Coming across a used electronic reading device in the attic instead of an old copy of Catcher in the Rye, or an ancient computer instead of a pile of dated newspapers, yields only broken bits of machine, instead of a conversation with my father about what it was like to grow up in the fifties and sixties.

Will we find bundles of emails, a correspondence between famous poets that brings new light to their works? The ease of the delete button seems to make this less likely.

Saving time, environmental resources and money are all worthwhile endeavors, and I do not suggest we abandon the efforts in these directions. We should consider what we are leaving behind. What we are really losing is this level of communication, which might only be carried through physical materials. And in the end, isn’t communication the fundamental purpose of all of these mediums?