Mike Elgan at Cult of the Mac in his article “At What Temperature Does an eBook Burn?” argue that ebook consolidation to companies like Amazon will make it possible to “destroy” publishing companies and consolidate media and eventually destroy the power of books my making books trivial, uninspiring to consumers and eventually like the book Fahrenheit 451 (a dystopian world where books were banned because they made people feel different) make it easier in the future for books to be eliminated. His argument for the parallel connection to the story:

“According to Bradbury, this imagined ban didn’t happen overnight. It was preceded by gradual trivialization of information in general. People increasingly preferred TV sound-bites and frivolous, out-of-context nuggets of information over reasoned argument and well-researched books about important ideas.

Eventually, writers and readers of books became so culturally marginalized that it was easy for the government to just eliminate them and their work by burning down any home or building that contained books.”

Is he right? Check out his argument

 

And for more about America’s growing mental obesity and lack of media literacy skills, as well as a solution, check out my new book Does This News Make Me Look Fat? Available now at Amazon or go to www.junkfoodmedianation.com