Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Word Inflation Drives Devaluation
“If we have a million photos, we tend to value each one less than if we
only had ten,” Yale University computer scientist David Galertner opens his reply to Edge's 2013 question: What should we be worried about? “The Internet forces a general devaluation of the written
word: a global deflation in the average word's value,” he continues. As
each word attracts less time and money from readers, it garners less time and effort from writers. As investment by writers and readers declines, society's ability to communicate decays, delivering what Galertner aptly describes as a “body blow to science, scholarship, the arts—to nearly
everything, in fact, that is distinctively human.” Worry About Internet Drivel
Labels:
communication,
cyberspace,
David Galertner,
Edge,
literacy,
reading,
words,
writing
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