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Cory Doctorow New Book: Enshitification (www.kickstarter.com)
submitted 1 year ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] 6 points 1 year ago* (10 children)

What? No you don’t. Oral book readings predate regular book reading as a widespread practice by literally thousands of years.

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  • [–] -3 points 1 year ago* (9 children)

    Yeah, but that was because in those days most people were actually illiterate, which in recent history we considered a bad thing and tried to avoid, but it seems to be making a comeback unfortunately.

    (Nothing against audiobooks specifically, you gotta do what you gotta do, just suggesting the decline in literacy in general is worrisome)

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago* (8 children)

    Not true, even highly educated Roman and Greek elites would attend book readings. It was considered a leisure activity and was appreciated as the performance it was, same as today.

    In fact today we have more reasons than ever to listen to audiobooks, the most significant of which is that it’s not legal nor advisable to read a physical book while driving a motor vehicle.

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  • [–] -2 points 1 year ago (7 children)

    Somehow, I don't think the original commenter was referring to their memories of ancient Greece or Rome...

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago* (6 children)

    Well yeah, because the original commenter wasn’t referring to their memories of any period of time, because the period of time they’re referring to doesn’t exist.

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  • [–] -1 points 1 year ago (5 children)

    It existed in the 90s and early 00s when I was growing up, before streaming tech took over audio books.

    Just because the concept of reading books out loud already existed, doesn't mean that they don't remember a time when it wasn't more popular than just reading.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (4 children)

    It existed in the 90s and early 00s

    I was around in the 90s and early 00s and I can assure you it very much did not. The popularity of audiobooks grew significantly in the 90s. Books on tape had been a thing for awhile already and the popularity of audiobooks on CD exploded in the early to mid 90s. You could buy or even rent them from music stores, libraries, video stores, even supermarkets. They even had little listening stations where you could hear the first chapter of popular books before buying them.

    In 1995 Audible was founded and brought about the advent of digital audiobooks downloaded from the internet which only accelerated their popularity. By the time the 00s started audiobooks were a multi billion dollar industry.

    doesn't mean that they don't remember a time when it wasn't more popular than just reading.

    Well that’s also a misunderstanding of the history of Audiobooks because I believe even today audiobooks are not more popular than reading physical books. So that time you “remember” would be… the present. So what is your point here exactly, you think OP is turning his nose up at audiobooks out of a sense of superiority due to his memories of a time where listening to books being read existed but was less popular than it is now in the future, but also in the past? Like we somehow peaked during some minuscule point in time where listening to books was at a lower point than others? Oook

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (1 child)

    @EncryptKeeper @prole I didnt understood the last parte, you are saying that audiobooks are not more popular than reading but more people listen to audiobooks than reading?

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

    More people don’t listen to audiobooks than reading today. But there was never “A time where books were for reading [as opposed to listening to]”

    People have been listening to books for millennia. And before books they were listening to the things we now put in books. If you go back far enough more people did listen to books more than read them. And if we reach that point again, it won’t be some newfangled idea it would just be something we’ve done for thousands of years becoming very popular again.

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  • [–] -1 points 1 year ago* (1 child)

    I'm just puzzled... I mean yeah, no shit, people read books out loud all of the fucking time, particularly before literacy became so common.

    But what is the point? What is it that you actually thought I meant with my previous comment? That oral tradition didn't exist in the 90s? What??

    Because it seems like that's the point you're arguing against.

    I thought it was pretty clear that I meant more people tended to read than listen to audio books in the 90s. And that's how I interpreted the original comment.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

    I thought it was pretty clear that I meant more people tended to read than listen to audio books in the 90s.

    More people tend to read than listen to audio books today. Despite that audiobooks are very popular today. They were also very popular in the 90s and 00s. So I guess I’m still wondering what exactly your point is? Having books read to you is popular today, it was popular in the 00s, it was popular in the 90s, it was popular 200 years ago, it was popular 2,000 years ago, etc.

    people read books out loud all of the fucking time, particularly before literacy became so common.

    That’s just it, it was not particularly before literacy became so common. People read books out loud all the time before literacy was common, and they did it all the time after literacy was common. They do it all the time today. It’s a thing we’ve collectively been doing for one reason for another for thousands of years so I don’t understand where you or OP are coming from when you refer to is as being something that’s normal now but not “before”. Especially with OPs tone of righteous indignation against it.

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