Young writers attempting to enter the work force are in for a much harder struggle than they realize. We hear everyday how much the print industry is hurting. Magazines are being closed, bookstores are selling fewer books, and newspapers are firing their staff left and right. What can a young writer trying to get into the field do to make it? The answer to this question changes almost every day. The internet has created a whole new form of media. The technology is evolving at a rapid pace. Millions of Americans now have hand-held devices that allow them to surf the web at any time. The internet offers all the news you can get in a newspaper for free, so why buy a newspaper? Unfortunately, for us purists out there, print is dying, and will one day soon be officially dead. Books, comic books, and magazines will always exist in hard copy, if not for anything else than as a novelty. But we will see less and less of them over the next few years, that’s for sure. The fact remains, just because print is dead does not mean writing will die along with it.
The transfer of information has changed throughout history. The way we receive media will always evolve. We saw this in the slides that were shown in last week’s class. All of these technologies were once used, and are now considered obsolete. The newspaper was the first way many people could receive information on a wide scale. Eventually, we saw the radio, then the television, now the internet, come into play as important technologies. The way we receive information has always evolved, but the internet allows all these things to be available to us for free. The problem we often run into when receiving news online in a written form is that the writing is not as good as it would be in a traditional newspaper. At least we don’t think it is, or maybe we just feel that way because we’re used to holding the newspaper and having it in a traditional form. A lot of us still feel this way and aren’t ready for an all digital age. The newspaper has been a part of our society for centuries.
The younger generation who is coming up has grown up with the internet in their homes as long as they can remember. With the invention of handheld devices such as Kindles and I-Phones, they can receive information at the click of a button rather than picking up a newspaper. This generation doesn’t have the attachment we have to things such as newspapers and books. They have more of an attachment to their phone or Kindle. With the invention of the Apple I-Pad we will see more magazines going digital. Companies often want to capture younger markets. Tapping into the internet and new technologies is the best way to do so. These days there is still a large market of people who want the hard copy of a magazine, but someday this will no longer exist. Eventually we will be living in an-all digital age. What we are experiencing right now is much like the Industrial Revolution that occurred a century ago, but this is a digital or technological revolution.
Many individuals in the field of writing and others feel the digital age is bad for writing. There is no doubt it’s bad for the printing world, and may very well be the end of it someday. Young writers should use the opportunity the web offers. “Technology has already happened. Technology is a very strong current. It’s better to swim with it than against it,” said world famous horror writer Stephen King. Now rather than putting in years of work and paying dues to try and get to the top, you can do it from the comfort of your own home. If you are a talented writer and release your material in the form of a blog or even wanted to sell fictional pieces online, you could. There are millions of writers out there today who are trying this. “We’re tapping a genre or niche out there that isn’t being served. Internet Writers such as Maddox, Robert Hamburger, and I have received success finding an audience online,” Said Tucker Max. In some ways it makes the field much more competitive. If you are a talented writer, with a vision as well as focus, people will recognize this and have interest in your work. Tucker Max is a perfect example of this. He started a website where he would release well written auto-biographical stories about drunken adventures he had with his friends or one-night-stands with women. He doesn’t even have a writing degree; he went to law school. He said he started sending stories describing his misadventures to his friends via e-mail. They loved the stories and told Tucker he should really post these things on a blog or a website. Once he did this Tuckermax.com spread through word of mouth. Eventually this generated a book deal and a movie based on the book. The title of his book and movie are called, I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell. The book was very successful while the film was not.
The story of Tucker Max shows up and coming writers should be utilizing the internet rather than complaining about how hard it is to make it nowadays because of the web. There is a ton of garbage on the internet, and unfortunately there is no way to regulate it at this point. We will have to see what the future holds for us. The internet and the digital age could seriously hurt writing or it could give us opportunities we never had before.
When it’s all said and done, the internet presents a new form of media for writers to use. We should all be using it to its full potential, because someday it might not be as easy to get something posted on the internet.
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