Reading is down in general. Book industry surveys show that those who read or pleasure are aging, and that most regular bookstore and library patrons are female (and SF has never been as popular with the ladies, as we know, although they do read fantasy).
When I was a lad, we didn't have 300 channels on cable television or the inter-muh-net. If we wanted to play a multi-player video game, we have to go to someone's house, or they had to come to ours, and the selection and quality of games was fairly limited. A good game would give you solid play for a week or so before you finished up or got bored, unlike the MMO's that keep expanding in fresh playability. Kids today have a lot more demands placed on their time, and on their budgets. Read? Phhft.
Warren Ellis recently commented that there are no "ship" shows on television anymore (and Stargate doesn't count just because they acquired a ship recently).
Cory Doctorow (or someone connected to BoingBoing, I can't recall who exactly) recently remarked that people aren't into space anymore, they're into computers and emerging consumer technologies. They're not square-jawed engineers with pocket protectors, either, they're guys with piercings and tats and laptops.
I think technology has passed us and we're still trying to catch up with its ramifications, which is why we're generally not as foreward-looking as science fiction asks us to be.
A major consideration is that the intar-ma-web has made the need for physical conventions largely obsolete. I get more information about science fiction (or any other topic) in a day now than I used to get in a season of con attendance. I have fellowship with folks who share my esoteric interests via email, instant messaging, and subscribing to their blogs via RSS. I no longer have to travel hundreds of miles once or twice per year to stay in crappy hotels to meet up with the other 300 people who share my interest in X.
Wed, 08/30/2006 - 5:12pm
A few random thoughts:
Reading is down in general. Book industry surveys show that those who read or pleasure are aging, and that most regular bookstore and library patrons are female (and SF has never been as popular with the ladies, as we know, although they do read fantasy).
When I was a lad, we didn't have 300 channels on cable television or the inter-muh-net. If we wanted to play a multi-player video game, we have to go to someone's house, or they had to come to ours, and the selection and quality of games was fairly limited. A good game would give you solid play for a week or so before you finished up or got bored, unlike the MMO's that keep expanding in fresh playability. Kids today have a lot more demands placed on their time, and on their budgets. Read? Phhft.
Warren Ellis recently commented that there are no "ship" shows on television anymore (and Stargate doesn't count just because they acquired a ship recently).
Cory Doctorow (or someone connected to BoingBoing, I can't recall who exactly) recently remarked that people aren't into space anymore, they're into computers and emerging consumer technologies. They're not square-jawed engineers with pocket protectors, either, they're guys with piercings and tats and laptops.
I think technology has passed us and we're still trying to catch up with its ramifications, which is why we're generally not as foreward-looking as science fiction asks us to be.
A major consideration is that the intar-ma-web has made the need for physical conventions largely obsolete. I get more information about science fiction (or any other topic) in a day now than I used to get in a season of con attendance. I have fellowship with folks who share my esoteric interests via email, instant messaging, and subscribing to their blogs via RSS. I no longer have to travel hundreds of miles once or twice per year to stay in crappy hotels to meet up with the other 300 people who share my interest in X.
Just thoughts.
»