Note to self: new media technology is here to stay.   I’m still amazed that there is a sense of urgency because the use of traditional media is declining.  I guess this is what the record industries of old experienced when radio was invented and their record sales took a nosedive.   Or, what the movie industry experienced when television was invented.  Executives were panicking because their livelihood was at stake.   That is, until they saw radio and television as an ally and a valuable business asset.

Without a doubt, the Internet has superceded it’s predecessors in making the world at large nervous.   Companies and industries alike are still scrambling to make heads or tails about one of the most powerful mediums to ever be invented.  It’s changing the game of how business is done, how information is disseminated and who disseminates it.  It’s changing Business to Business and Consumer to Consumer interactions.   Thomas Friedman said it best in the title of his bestseller, “The World is Flat” and the internet flattened it.

So, it’s no surprise that in the literary world the red flags are flying at half mass.  Folks are concerned that teens are no longer reading.  Well, that’s true and false.  There has definitely been a decrease in reading traditional media, like books, true.  But, the idea that teens no longer read for pleasure in this new age of technology is, well, false.  According to a recent article in the Washington Post, teens are now accessing their reading materials via their mobile phones, online, or on their computers.   Researchers are finding that teens are still reading, but in different ways and for different reasons.

I believe it’s time for the red flags to come down and for the white flags to go up.  It’s time for the old guard to surrender to the media of the new guard.  They just might find that it’s a lighter burden to carry!