Tomorrow, on the second day of the year, my daughter turns two. Like most parents my life is consumed by caring for her, preparing her for life, & thinking of her future. I’m fascinated by the type of world she’s going to encounter, the aspects that won’t change very much, and those that will shift dramatically. Technology, due to its very nature, will be very different seventeen years from now when she’s in college (if colleges, as we know them, still exist then…I have my doubts about higher education). Fundamental to my own professional interests–as a former librarian, as a software developer, as a writer, as a reader–is understanding how we tell and read stories (particularly non-fiction) in digital media. The future trajectory of my daughter’s life is the lens through which I view the changing shape of creativity, learning, and leisure in the early twenty-first century. And that’s the very reason I care deeply about the topic.
Here at the beginning of 2013 is a good point to re-read two posts I wrote in years past. These are guide points for me that I come back to again and again:
- Storytelling in the mid-century from July 2011
- Starting with Manovich from February 2005, years before my daughter even existed.
In re-reading those posts again I find my professional passion expressed in those words. For 2013 I must dedicate myself to further examining what I described as the real burden upon all of us: ensuring that “tomorrow’s writers & editors understand the elements of style required for creating the publications that will dominate the mid-century“.
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