In 1897, a journalist misleadingly reported that Mark Twain was gravely ill. Soon after, another reporter notified of his death. A popular American newspaper at the time even went ahead and printed his obituary. Later on, Mark Twain commented, “My death has been grossly exaggerated.” The same can be said about print.
Many people would argue that print is no longer usable concluding that digital media has taken over the role of traditional print. Recently, word has it that there’s a chance that print is slowly making its way back to the scenes as people suffer from digital cluttering.
Digital Clutter Becoming a Problem
As we turn to the digital platforms to socialize, send emails, engage with friends through digital media, we continue to be exposed to unprecedented amounts of hours before our smartphones' and computers' screens. Soon, we get fatigued from this excess exposure. Since our lives seemingly revolve around different digital platforms, we end up having several pieces of software, applications, and information on our devices. Consequently, we end up having an unmatched digital clutter.
Publications and marketing strategies have slowly been employing digital techniques over the years. Personally, I have experienced it in my business. The benefit is that digital publishing offers great opportunities to inject media into publications and collateral. The growing digital industry continues to get saturated with live streams, blogs, video content, etc. People are now entering a stage of digital clutter overload.
Growth of Digital Media
Ten years ago, since Kindle was unveiled, there have been conversations about readers' preferences between print and e-book. E-book sales experienced an exponential growth while print suffered as sales stagnated. Some of the libraries I saw eliminated their physical books and digitized them. However, this trend is now shifting as a hankering to consume tangibles grows.
In April, this year, an article appeared in the Guardian which asked whether e-books had lost their shine. The article reported a drop in the purchase of e-books by 17% and 20% in the UK and U.S. respectively. Many questions remain unanswered from this phenomenon. Nevertheless, one of the main challenges is the screen fatigue that users face. Amidst all the enjoyment while reading e-books comes text notifications, social notifications, and email alerts. The beautiful nature of print gives it an edge in contrast to digital media. Apart from being tangible, print media is diverse and can be used to create a cross-platform strategy.
Originally published August 18, 2017. Part of the Ridpath Creative journal — notes on craft, typography, and the work.