Future? How Will Writing Affect the Future?

¶ … future?

How will writing affect the future?

Writing is probably the most important form of communication and it has shaped the course of human history and evolution. The historic role of writing is undeniable. It has, for instance, propagated the events of the past to create lessons in the future; it has set at the basis of the creation of nations and societies and it has transmitted values and norms of behavior. But in the modern day climate, characterized by high technologic evolution, rush and stress, where does writing fit? And most importantly, how will it affect the future?

The provision of an answer to the posed question is a highly intricate endeavor, due to the changing role of writing in its essence. Writing is no longer just about books, journals and mainstream media. Writing has now become a tool available to all people with access to computers and internet. These people then spread out their writings to the entire globe. This virtually translates into an exponentially increased access to information as countless pieces of writing become instantly available.

As more written materials become more easily accessible to the population, the amount of information available also increases exponentially. This means that the individual of the future would be virtually assaulted with information, from which they would have to choose those pieces which best respond to their particular needs of information. In other words, the intensive propagation of written materials would force the readers to become more analytical, more critical and more selective in their reading choices.

Also in the context of internet and hi-tech developments, the form of presenting the pieces of writing would also be expected to suffer a series of changes. Specifically, the written words would be expected to be clearer and easier to browse through, so that they are better selected. Also, to increase their relevance, they would be expected to integrate more visual aids. In such a setting, it is expected that writing in the future would be characterized by a change in the ratio of words to images in favor of more images (Horn, 2001).

Another aspect to consider is represented by the support to be used in the propagation of the written materials. In this order of ideas, it is commonly accepted that writing will not disappear in the future, but paper support writing would eventually come to this resolution. The printing industry is in its final stages of decay, but despite this, books continue to be popular worldwide. This virtually means that books would become available in the different formats. These virtually include the electronic formats, which would allow for the books to be read in mobile devices, for an increased convenience of the user (Morrison, 2011). And the impact would be that the books will continue to impact human life, but through a more hi-tech media.

Still, an important challenge that will be facing writing in the future is represented by the ability to convert written pieces into financial returns. As the world becomes more digitized, the users often expect for written content to be available on the internet, and also for it to be free. Through these lenses, the future of writing is uncertain (Harris, 2011) and its future impact on the society is also unclear.

All in all, writing would continue to represent an essential aspect of mankind's evolution, information, behavioral and overall life. The future is expected to witness several changes in the role and manifestation of writing, and these changes would virtually represent adaptations to the changing climate of the future society.