It is fascinating and a bit frightening how much is invested in the designing and laying out of texts. Readers today, dismiss and choose reading materials almost automatically based on the page's or screen's design.
For instance, academic materials are usually very plain and with very little to no design. As opposed to a comic book or a text book which are very heavy in colors, pictures and graphics. So, readers can assume the genre or content of a text just by the look of it. "Don't judge a book by its cover" seems to no longer be applicable especially in the digital world of literacy.
It feels like writing and publishing nowadays is becoming more and more an exercise in graphic design where content or substance is forced to take a back seat.
Being a reader myself, I tend to avoid most websites, blogs, newsletters, links emailed to me as reading or research materials. Trust is the first reason why I dismiss most virtual texts. The other reason is the layout. I question the credibility and value of a site based on the colors, graphics and amount of advertisements on a particular page. The more graphics, colors and animations on a page, the more I doubt the content of the text swimming in it all
Literature and information are more accessible (cheaper) than ever. With google, anyone in the world can access millions/billions of written works. I'm very grateful to be part of a world that is just a 'click' away from everyone with a computer and internet access. But the excess of information and the manipulation of its delivery is very frightening.
I always think that people are reading and writing less now than before the birth of the internet. But what is reading and writing? Can writing and reading be defined and assessed the same way it used to during Byron and Dante? Or is blogging where writing and reading is today?
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