There has been a lot of talk lately concerning the possibility of computers replacing the position of books in our life. But is it truly possible After all, they are both valuable assets of our civilization and possess positive and negative features. One may say that computers are far more effective because they are much more convenient – unlike them, printed books don’t have an option of automatic search, and in order to find the necessary fragment you have to look through the entire text.
Books are ineffective as a source of containing information, while computer’s hard drive can easily contain many thousands of books, being as transportable as any single volume. Moreover, computer is more helpful when it is necessary to get some information quickly, for you have nothing to do but enter the necessary word into the search engine and skim through the results, whereas in the case of using books you have to go to the library or a book shop. On the other hand, books possess unquestionable cultural, symbolic and aesthetic value that computer lacks completely.
A lot of people say that reading electronic texts is nothing near to holding an actual book in your hands, feeling the smell of paper and turning the pages as you read. Besides, reading books is not accompanied with harmful radiation that is inevitable when you use computers – certain individuals are even physically incapable of reading e-text for a long time. Having looked through pro et contra, I think that books can be replaced by computers as the method of storing information, but not as the source of aesthetic and intellectual pleasure for a lot of people.
