Digital Gutenberg era

By Kumar Vikrant

The exponential rise of digital technology over the last three decades is marked by its dramatic integration with our everyday lives. It is likely that you, the reader, are reading this article on some digital device.

Given the revolutionary impact digital technology has had on mass communication, it could be considered a second coming of the Gutenberg revolution. The 15th-century invention of the printing press was a game changer as it revolutionized education, communication and social interaction.

The printing press essentially reorganized society. Even from the dawn of humanity, communication modes have played an instrumental role in defining our being. Be it waterways, animal paths, food gathering trails, early railroads, telegraph systems or telephones, we have always governed our communication networks to impact economics and individual personalities.

The Gutenberg printing press enabled the populous to mass-produce books (including the Bible) to transform society as reading had previously been restricted to the elites. Johannes Gutenberg broke open the safe and enabled the free flow of information.

The knowledge had been stacked away in handwritten manuscripts only to be accessed by the priestly and the powerful in isolated monasteries and private collections. The free flow of ideas enabled critical thinking through mass education to eventually drive the scientific revolution and other socioeconomic changes such as the Renaissance.

The present-day scenario is nothing short of a miraculous revolutionary period wherein both computing and networks have been integrated to give birth to a new reality. The internet and digital technology could be the most powerful platforms to have ever existed on Earth. The changes are all around us. Most newspapers and magazines have now transformed into a digital mode and are available to read online.

The market share of e-books and audiobooks has been expanding at an exponential rate. There has been a sudden rise in online articles and blog sites such as Medium and Quora. Also, with email and social media, people are within instantaneous communication with one another even if wide geographical distances separate them.

People have been tuning in to listen to long-form podcasts and interviews. Almost all knowledge has been digitized and available at the push of a button on search engines. Everything one would want to know is available in interactive forms on websites like YouTube.

Audiobooks and podcasts have grown enormously in popularity, perhaps because people can listen to them on the go while driving, exercising or doing day-to-day chores. E-books and audiobooks do not take up actual storage space in peoples' homes and can last in prime condition for all eternity. Personally, I still stick to reading paperbacks and spend a lot of money and space on buying and storing them. Perhaps I am a bit old-fashioned?

Despite its tremendous positive impact, the digital revolution should be regularly assessed and scrutinized for its possibility to wreak havoc as well. Cybercrime, terrorism and addictions to games, adult content, gambling, and social media are all the dark realities of this modern era brought upon by the digital revolution. As with everything, modern technology's positive and negative sides should be balanced and controlled to create global harmony.

The modern digital age is changing at an incomprehensibly swift pace. It took almost 125 years for the telephone to reach 1 billion people. Facebook reached a billion people in a mere eight years. The rules for living in harmony with technology and nature may not be the same anymore. However, there is no need to panic. As the industrial age dawned over our predominantly agrarian society, we changed accordingly. Similarly, the digital Gutenberg revolution also needs to be handled with care as per our needs.

The time is ripe for learning from history, creating new rules and moving ahead towards the dawn of a new age just above the horizon.

Kumar Vikrant (kvikrant071@gmail.com; kumarvikrant.com) is a doctoral student at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering of Hanyang University in Seoul.