The Owl Has Flown Response

In the article, "The Owl Has Flown," Sven Birkets describes the situation with modern day reading habits and how it has changed through out the years. He believes that this dramatic change is mostly due to technology and the availability of writing today. Before the evolution of mechanically produced books, these hand written master pieces were few and far between. Therefore, those who read these few texts, read more in depth and analyzed every word and phrase they took in. They became so called experts on certain types of texts and areas of study. Once books started being produced by machines, the amount sky rocketed to an unbelievable amount available to the public. With all of these books available, people began reading a broader spectrum. People began reading more content, but they were no longer analyzing the reading, they were just skimming the surface. According to the historian Ralph Engelsing and Robert Darnton, "From the Middle Ages to the mid 1700's, people read intensively. In the 1800's people began reading extensively."
I agree with Birkets in saying that society is reading "extensively" due to the availability of content. People were required to read a book in order to read. There were no billboards or signs conveniently hung with eyesight like you see almost everywhere in today's society. In modern times it is easier for people to read than in the past. I believe that people, while reading in a broader spectrum, are creating a larger and more rounded knowledge. In the past, there were experts on very specific topics, because they only read and analyzed texts on that subject. Technology is definitely the main, if not the only reason that society doesn't analyze the reading. By reading and not analyzing, the idea that there is a difference between knowledge and wisdom comes into play. It is hard to determine whether or not this change benefited society or not. I feel that it has helped us in a way because people are becoming less dependent on each other. Unfortunately this is also a downfall because it is pulling us, as a community, away from one another. Another downfall is that we are losing that in depth knowledge of certain topics because people are not studying the text anymore. The real question is, are we losing more than we are gaining, or is it the other way around.