Week 12 Journal

Print media and digital media are very strongly related. Print media came before digital. With the advancements of technology, print media was “digitalized”. Both forms have similar qualities and come with particular advantages and disadvantages to using each one. Print media has the convenience of physically being able to annotate and edit. Print is preferred because many people like to be able to have a physical copy to read and edit as opposed to having to pull the file up online and read off of a computer screen. On the other hand, digital media can be stored and organized electronically, saving space and paper. However, by storing digitally, the “art of piling” as discussed in the article is lost. With little thinking, almost subconsciously, paper and other forms of print media are organized in a very specific manner. For example, if you were to exam my desk, you would find notebooks in one drawer, a pile of important receipts on one shelf, a pile of business cards, a pile of miscellaneous papers consisting of bank statements, syllabi, access codes for online books, letters from friends, and anything else that comes across my desk. This pile is organized by time, most recently viewed items towards the top. The way my desk is organized makes sense to me, if an outsider were to come and try and find a text, they would not be able to find it as easily as I would. The advantage to having the text in print form is its ability to be “piled” or spatially organized. Piles represent how we think. Paper is spatially flexible, so it is able to be organized and arranged in a way that fits the owner’s needs. Digital text on the other hand can only be organized in a way that is set by the program used, there is much less room for flexibility. Due to the fact that both digital and print possess their own advantages and disadvantages, I believe that both mediums will continue to coexist. People will always enjoy the advantage of being able to pile print medium, spatially organize, and physically edit paper. However, the ability to quickly share and publish digital media will also be favored. Everyday writing will continue to exist in both forms. It simply depends on the user’s needs and preferences when choosing which medium he or she will pick to communicate their message.