The classic tale, Fahrenheit 451, taught how the only safe haven for books is in the mind. More accurately, recitation, oration and memory were synonymous with narrative knowledge in the human collective. Today, as the digital age overtakes print media, not only in journalism, but also in all literature, contemporary gadgetry expands traditional literary form further into the realm of interactive multimedia.

The modern book is a mere fraction (about one four-thousandth) of the capacity in the average digital reader. Compared to audio/visual functions, the emphasis on reading seriously diminishes. While there is crucial importance in the maintenance of print literature, the unabated influx of audio/visual information likens to a more traditional human experience. Long before print, communication, and thus information, was dominantly a function of speech (audio) and observation (visual).

In the past, the printing press revolutionized literature into a public good. However, due to autonomous online media, and the exclusion of technological gadgetries from those on the economic margin, literature is again revolving back into a private good. With the increasingly narrow means to print literature, social awareness becomes more and more about personal choice, challenging the very foundations of the literate public.