Books vs. The Internet

After realising Books vs. Technology was a misleading title I have been thinking a lot about how recent technology is able to improve literature. I have researched the ways the Internet may be destroying literary environments and even books themselves, but maybe I can prove this idea (and myself) wrong.

The main advantage the Internet gives books (and most things) is accessibility. I don't just mean ability to discover and locate titles online but rather, ability to understand them. The Internet has proved useful for study support (games on BBC Bitesize would be a good example) and makes difficult texts less intimidating through sites like Sparknotes, and even Wikipedia.

A student daunted by a huge book they have to read (and understand) might go to one of these sites for a plot summary before they begin. Twenty years ago this would not have been possible. 

However, I feel like what these sites are missing (as you can see from above) are images. Many people learn visually, and for them, a wordy online study guide might be almost as scary as a big book. The Internet floods our brain with images daily (popular sites like Facebook and Youtube are obvious examples) whereas, like I discussed before, websites full of texts are boring and repellant.


It seems odd that online study guides don't utilise the obvious visual potential of the Internet!