“It has been a while since 18-year-old Abe Hassan read a book of fiction or went to bed before 10 p.m. After his parents signed up for broadband Internet access, Hassan began making daily rounds of the social-networking Web site LiveJournal.com, where he can talk to any of its 6.6 million other members.” – BusinessWeek Online
The TeleRead take: Clear? While aging publishers are worried about safeguarding their literary riches, the biggest issue is something else–whether the under 25s will appreciate books, period. A library-oriented model could help, especially if libraries can take advantage of such trends as blogging. More than a quarter of teens in broadband households are already blogging. If we want them to read novels and other works, then books must be as affordable as possible and tightly woven into the fabric of the Net. This just the kind of vision that the old farts hate.
