Printing press ENG 111 - essay on a desired topic PDF

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Millennials 1 Group: Millennials Professor Bauman English 111 - 09 1 November 2016 The Printing Press Around the mid 1400’s Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press, a machine that revolutionized the way knowledge was spread. This invention has made its way throughout Europe and influenced many to take part in being literate, it was not just for those who could afford it anymore. The printing press was unrivaled at the time, its ability to advance and spread knowledge and even mold public opinion was groundbreaking, “Moveable type printing “changed the face and condition of things all over the world,” Francis Bacon wrote in his 1620 book Novum Organum, “so that no empire or sect or star seems to have exercised a greater power and influence on human affairs.” (Carr 69). Gutenberg’s invention had introduced printing to Europe and caused a revolution, the printing revolution. This revolution created works of literature in mass, causing many to become literate. The creation of this moveable type led to mass communication, “which permanently altered the structure of society.” (Wikipedia; Printing Press). Information was now able to reach a greater amount of people, for example an increase in literacy broke class barriers. It made it harder for the church and government to censor what was being spread and what wasn’t, it challenged that power the church and government had. This invention was the start of a new era, we now have taken that and ran with it causing many revolutions based on the spread of

Millennials 2 information: The Renaissance, Reformation, the Age of Enlightenment, and the scientific revolution. The very first aspect people reference in regards to Johann Gutenberg’s invention was the knowledge spread from the arrival of printed books. However, the most important factor behind his invention was the introduction to hundreds of modern technology inventions. Many people were enlightened by the idea of Gutenberg’s invention, while others believed it changed the way people thought, read, wrote, and learned. In The Shallows, Nicholas Carr strongly believes that “intellectual technologies” like Gutenberg’s printing press, “[had] reshaped our activities and culture” (Carr. 50). His statement is true since one can identify the behaviors of people changing throughout the evolution of the 15th century printing press up into today’s printing press. The article “The Craft by Which We Live,” illustrates a great example of how the printing press contributed in the making of “the photoset machine” during the 1950’s. In addition, the “modern paper industry and the great edition binderies are additional symptoms of the trend started by Gutenberg in the craft he founded.” The evolution of technology has changed from that day on, because “now the computer and the camera have displaced metal type and the letterpress traditionally used for generations by printers.” This evidence demonstrates the increasement of people focusing to improve technology. Next time we will notice a printing press that runs automatically by itself. These inventions would have not been created if it weren’t for Gutenberg’s printing press. Gutenberg’s printing press led new advancements in later technology as I explained above, but we can also observe that his intentions for this product was to make business. In consequence, this decreased the interest behind people’s writing,art, communication, since

Millennials 3 people were now ofrced to depend on technology to display their work publically. According to Ward Ritchie’s article; “The Legacy Of Johann Gutenberg In Southern California,” argues that “the art of printing is being divorced from the commerce of printing. We are gradually beginning to consider the fine book as being a work of art as is a fine painting or a piece of sculpture.” Ritchie compares a book to art, yet later on people focused on the money it portrayed. Eventually by time, people were not passionate about art and literature, but continued to compete with other people’s work in order to survive. Yes, Gutenberg’s invention was extremely significant since it encouraged a revolution in technology, literature, religions, business, etc; however, it deuterated the principles of art and negatively impacted several behaviors within society. During 1445, the Gutenberg printing press was an astounding piece of machinery that made an impact on the way humans lived during those times. This invention decreased the time it took to hand print books by more than three quarters. With the capabilities of the printing press, it brought the expenses of creating a book to an affordable price making such reading materials became increasingly available for everyone. Book making became easier to make due to the fact that there would no longer be the need for animal skin to be used as writing paper; which took some time to turn into, because it needed to be clean, striped, and thin. According, to the Annenberg Learner website “In the Middle Ages, books had been costly and education rare; only the clergy had been readers and owners of books.” This is why the printing press was so beneficial to people during the 1400’s, because reading raised their attention span and raising literacy within the populace. As stated by Jared Diamond “Without printing, millions of people wouldn't have read quickly, with no transmission errors, Martin Luther's 95 Theses, the Declaration of Independence, the Communist Manifesto or other world-changing texts. Without

Millennials 4 printing, we wouldn't have modern science.” As a result, the printing press was a breakthrough invention in the past that help the launch of the scientific revolution. The printing press helped create the bridge from the middle ages to the scientific revolution. Scientists were now able to obtain information from one another without disputing whether the research was trustworthy. As stated in the FC74 article “Scientists working on the same problem in different parts of Europe especially benefited, since they could print the results of their work and share it accurately with a large number of other scientists.” The information had to be printed clearly and fast on paper, so the other scientists’ may read the research and quickly do some research of their own on the same topic. This all together lead to the advancement in our technology that we have today and how it has shaped us. The year 1445 marks the creation of a major milestone in the history of recording information, the Gutenberg printing press. An event that impacted mass communication in an equally crucial way was the parallel conception of technology. The birth of technology in this case focuses on the Internet as a main form of information distribution. The overall side effects of these two creations have influenced the population in a social, physical, and mental aspect. Nicholas Carr addresses these influences in his novel, The Shallows. Carr states, “After 550 years, the printing press and its products are being pushed from the center of our intellectual life to its edges” (77). This refers to the transition from the previously used printing press into the present day utilization of the Internet. The main form of communication has shifted. He continues, “The electronic revolution is approaching its culmination as the computer-desktop, laptop, handheld-becomes our constant companion and the Internet becomes our medium of

Millennials 5 choice for storing, processing, and sharing information in all forms, including text” (77). These are the new forms of which information is being distributed and processed by the public. In the social aspect this brings forth changes because of how the general population has shifted from conducting research at libraries to doing research online. Behavioral patterns have shifted and also forms of interaction have been influenced. The printing press created the basis for mass printing of books, which in turn caused efficiency in the spread of information but the population has shifted to doing research via the Internet. The physical changes revolve around the changes in accessibility ties in with the ways that people conducted research. Instead of physically looking through encyclopedias for information they could easily Google it. In addition, to this the transition has made the overall production of information easier. Rather than it being done on the press it can be directly uploaded online. People worldwide can access it at anytime without having to physically visit a library. The mental changes brought forth by this transition from printing press to modern devices are the ways in which the brain processes the information. In addition Carr states, “The natural state of the human brain, like that of the brains of most of our relatives in the animal kingdom, is one of the distractedness. Our predisposition is to shift our gaze, and hence our intention, from one object to another, to be aware of as much of what is going on around us as possible”(65). When we are too involved in checking our phones and searching the Internet to read about various random tangents there is a lack of focus that our minds have. The shift he refers to causes us to be unable to channel our attention in one area at a time. The utilization of

Millennials 6 the printing press has progressed to Internet based devices and it has caused changes in a social, physical and mental aspect.

Millennials 7 Work Cited Butler, Chris. "The Flow of History." FC74: The Invention of the Printing Press. Web. 24 Oct. 2016. Carr, Nicholas G. The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains. New York: W.W. Norton, 2010. Print. Diamond, Jared. “Best Invention; Invention Is the Mother of Necessity.” The New York Times Magazine. New York Times, 18 Apr. 1999. Web. 24 Oct. 2016. Rie, Warditch. “The Legacy Of Johann Gutenberg In Southern California.” Southern California Quarterly, vol. 66, no. 2, 1984, pp. 133–146. http://0-www.jstor.org.torofind.csudh.edu/stable/41171095. Thompson, Lawrence S. “The Craft by Which We Live.” ALA Bulletin, vol. 50, no. 7, 1956, pp. 429–432. http://0-www.jstor.org.torofind.csudh.edu/stable/25694803. "Printing Press." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Web. 24 Oct. 2016. “Renaissance: Printing and Thinking.” Annenberg Learner. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Oct. 2016....