Print or Audiobook? Yes, Please!

How audiobooks change as as readers, and as writers

A few years ago, ebooks were a hot topic of debate among the bookish. Were ebooks destroying our attention and killing the publishing industry? Or were they making books more accessible and increasing readership?

Now the buzz is about audiobooks. Audiobook revenues and titles are growing, and our reading habits are expanding to include listening. Some authors are bypassing print altogether for their works. Business author David Burkus released Pick a Fight as audio only, and historian Erik Larsen is publishing an audio-only ghost story, No One Goes Alone.

Let’s put aside what the growth in audiobooks means for the publishing industry and focus instead on its impact on us as people.

We make technology, technology makes us

Our brains adapt and rewire themselves in our lifetimes based on our behaviors. When we use technologies, we reinforce certain neural patterns and neglect others.

Reading and writing came too late in our history as a species to have dedicated brain functions-they are themselves technologies that have coopted regions of our brains.

It’s no exaggeration to say that technologies change us in meaningful ways.