Sunday, June 17, 2018

Tomorrow Today

I quote a blog, The Digital Reader:

'Amazon announced on Friday that the Kindle Unlimited funding pool total $22.5 million in May (plus bonuses - most of which went to the cheats) up from $21.2 million in April 2018. At the same time the per-page rate royalty hovered at $0.00454 in May, compared to $0.00456 in April and $0.004449 in March 2018.'

I quote not to share numbers, not to comment on Amazon and electronic publication. I do point to currents in modern humanity that push us to live online, to exist virally. Exist as it is experienced and valued by more and more people. Specifically, if a person wants to share anything to a large audience, they must "talk about themselves" online, they must comment on the comments of others, they must have a large following. Otherwise, "$0.00456 " per page doesn't purchase much people kibble. And none of this is healthy for folks struggling to figure out what is going on.

You see this growing stupidity in the use of tiny pictures to convey what used to be subtle emotions. You see it in a great newspaper, the New York Times, which now runs its book review summaries as if the audience were composed of post menarchal girls in a book club.

On the good side these viral currents make it easier for people to stay in touch. On what you might call the bad side (though I do not) this means people are living more and more, in their imagination: they are dreaming. And on the good side, this is tomorrow, this is the future.