i was rather disturbed by an article in the nytimes this morning… words of wisdom vs. words from our sponsor which discusses how companies are now taking advantage of electronic versions of books, a shift that will take years to complete but is inevitable nonetheless. these companies, one being Freeload Press in st. paul, seeks to profit from electronic textbooks by placing selling advertising space throughout the entire textbook similar to a newspaper or magazine. true, college textbooks are expensive as hell and in most cases i would rather spend my money elsewhere. however, if i had the option to pay for an electronic copy of the textbook at a fraction of the cost of a printed version, but having to deal with advertisements at all times… i would definitely continue paying for the printed version.
again, we have the case where technology is used in a negative manner. everyday we are bombarded with popup ads, text and image and no animated ads everywhere on the internet. our inboxes are loaded with unrelenting spam no matter what filters and anti-spam software we have in place. billboards. magazines in which the ad pages out-number actual content. radio ads. we ourselves are living, walking advertisements promoting the brands and styles we enjoy. can it stop? must we saturate our lives and environments with advertisements in such a way that that majority of us ultimately become brainwashed…having our right to free will and choices stripped away? our books, textbooks, novels, etc, have been our only escape.
it’s sad that college and universities have become primary targets for advertisers, and that we no longer value education for what it’s worth. i hope i am not the only one that sees a problem with this thought: reading a chapter on ancient roman architecture and having to ignore advertisements about distgusting food from our pathetic fast food chains, or promoting the latest no-talent mainstream artist who sounds like all the others. sorry, but i will continue to enjoy my tactile pleasures in holding and reading a book no matter how much i love and support digital technology!