Welcome to Friday Debate, a feature on cup of tea with that book, please, where every Friday a question will be posted that tantalize the brain and expands our horizons. For this week’s question:
Move over cuddly animals and scenic landscapes! There is another new feature that will be enjoyable to Instagram users: Insta-novels.
What’s that? Insta-novels are a new imagining way, introduced by the New York Public Library, to connect iconic classic stories to the Instagram stories feature. In partnership with Mother in New York, digital versions of books will be turned into a Instagram story. Last week, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll was released and in the next coming weeks, The Yellow Wallpaper, a short story by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and The Metamorphosis by Frank Kafka. Each digital story will be illustrated and designed by different artists.
This is an interesting way to bring classic literature to a digital platform. It brings reading to a digital platform that people are already glued to and brings attention to great stories more widely. However, there are a few flaws One, there is no guarantee that people are going to spend time reading the entire story. Two, unlike a physical book or an ebook, you have no way of leaving a bookmark if you want to pause your reading. And three, the novel choices will be limited. Most likely the books that will be chosen will be in the public domain, which for the most part are classics. Some will be turned off by that. Part of me also feels that we should be looking for more ways to unplug and this appears to be another way to be more absorbed in our phones.
This new technology leads to me ask these two questions:
Please post any comments you have below.
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