Critical Thinking Will Never Die

I honestly don’t believe that our society would ever get to the point where we BURN books. They may stop printing them due to the internet where you can read articles and sometimes novels for free. There is also Amazon’s Kindle and the iPad where you can purchase hundreds of books and read them from the device. These methods of reading are already very popular. Kindle sales have been increasing ever since the price cut to compete with Barnes and Noble’s Nook and Apple’s iPad. Amazon sells 143 electronic books for every 100 hardcover books sold on their website so you can see that people prefer to read electronically. There are also 3.27 million people that own iPads. I believe if this number increases over time (and it will) there could be a chance that bookstores go out of business. Stayin at home and ordering instant books online is a lot more convenient than going to a store or waiting for a shipment. Sales for Kindle and iPad can be seen here and here.

Even though digital copies are extremely convenient I still would not think that books would be burned and if enough people purchase from bookstores , they will not be discontinued. There are advantages of having a physical copy. As a student, I have to read a lot of literature and when studying, it helps me a lot to highlight information that is relevant to material on a test or quotes that should be added into an essay. In movies there is usually a home that has a bookshelf full of beautiful books. It adds style to your home. I feel the same way about music. I usually download my music, but for the albums that I really love I like to buy Vinyl records. I’m trying to get a modern collection of LPs so I can display them around my house, plus the sound quality is much better.

The content of a digital copy is no different than a physical copy of a story. It’s all a matter of preference. Because of this I do not believe that our ability to critically think will be eliminated. And even if books were forever vaporized, they are not the only piece of material that make us think critically. Just recently I saw the movie Inception and I thought about the ending for hours and debated with friends on Facebook and looked up several articles and forums that would help me understand better. All of my friends thought very critically and came up with great reasons why their theory was correct. Christopher Nolan (the director) is a genius. He got his audience to do exactly what he wanted. Think!