Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Hundreds of thousands of people read novels on Instagram

fastcompany.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 81 posts

Re: Hundreds of thousands of people read novels on Instagram

#21

Post by milankragujevic »

DJHenk wrote: post #11

Wow, talking about putting the horse behind the carriage. So, people don't have the concentration to read a book anymore. But instead of fixing the cause of this, whatever it is, we mangle them through platforms that weren't designed for it and if there is some success, we claim that people are reading again. Of course they are not. It's a whole different experience. It can be nice and it can add to the experiences t…

That is quite a negative opinion, and seems to be very elitist ("book-readers club" vs "non-book readers club"). Nobody is getting "fixed", as sharing written text via new methods does not "harm" written books. People who are going to read books will do so, people who won't may read something similar to books, or may not. The books do not "gain" or "loose" anything, but people do gain, as does society. Those who wouldn't read may do so, which is a positive, those who would already do.

Re: Hundreds of thousands of people read novels on Instagram

#22

Post by masklinn »

DJHenk wrote: post #11

Wow, talking about putting the horse behind the carriage. So, people don't have the concentration to read a book anymore. But instead of fixing the cause of this, whatever it is, we mangle them through platforms that weren't designed for it and if there is some success, we claim that people are reading again. Of course they are not. It's a whole different experience. It can be nice and it can add to the experiences t…

> So, people don't have the concentration to read a book anymore.

Or people don't really carry books anymore, whereas they always carry their phone, so reading novels there is convenient, and the experiment specifically designed an experience for the platform.

> we claim that people are reading again. Of course they are not. It's a whole different experience.

Of reading novels.

> It is more like seeing the movie adaptation of the book.

In what way is the full novel text "more like seeing the movie adaptation" exactly? It seems odd that you would care solely about the physical format and apparently not even remotely care about the contents.

> Books have remained the same for centuries.

Except for all the times people were not reading books e.g. many 19th century classics were initially serialised in newspapers, consumed as bite-sized chapters before being collected into volumes.

> If people are suddenly unable to read them anymore, it is far more likely that it is the people that need "fixing", and not the books.

Good luck with that. Meanwhile other people care more about the works than the format and are, as the article notes,

> happy to meet people where they are

Re: Hundreds of thousands of people read novels on Instagram

#23

Post by maxheadroom »

tomashubelbauer wrote: post #15
greggman2 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

and yet in my experience most HNers and similar tech communities want all docs in plain text, tex, or very simple markdown suggest that Wikipedia would be better if it's physics articles had interactive simulations or that stack overflow's failed docs initiative should make room for working examples and get downvoted into oblivion

We've seen some interactive education projects on HN (the famous page on raytracing, the one where there's everything about curves, many audio-based projects) and they have had great reception. I think the reason why most devs still prefer plain-text resources over anything else is two-fold: interactive stuff tends to be less standard (because there isn't really a good standard for it) and harder to version than text…

>I think the reason why most devs still prefer plain-text resources over anything else is...

I think you missed a vital reason and that is portability and sharability. No one needs to install anything special to read or edit a text file.

It's the digital equivalent of paper and pen when you think about it and that makes it a popular platform for everyone to be able to consume it.

Plus, back when we were all old and dinosaurs roamed the Earth, the text file was the lightest/smallest way to transfer data (read: ideas) between computers.

The practice/behaviour saturated the industry so much that many readmes of today are still on text files.

Maybe there's a correlation to the real world, where we're definitely more apt to consume mediums that don't have superfluous data points than the words/ideas that they're meant to convey? Maybe I'm just talking out of my ass?

Either way, plain-text resources are the easiest to create, share, and consume because there's almost a universality in the standard for text files (except the EOL and CRLF but that's more of an inconvenience than anything).

Re: Hundreds of thousands of people read novels on Instagram

#24

Post by masklinn »

SmellyGeekBoy wrote: post #18
greggman2 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

and yet in my experience most HNers and similar tech communities want all docs in plain text, tex, or very simple markdown suggest that Wikipedia would be better if it's physics articles had interactive simulations or that stack overflow's failed docs initiative should make room for working examples and get downvoted into oblivion

It's almost as if they're aimed at completely different audiences!

HN on a phone is a miserable experience.

Re: Hundreds of thousands of people read novels on Instagram

#25

Post by _august »

Try it yourself, it’s pretty cool like an instant ebook.

Metamorphosis: https://www.instagram.com/s/aGlnaGxpZ2h0OjE3ODUyMTE0ODA2MzA3...

The Raven: https://www.instagram.com/s/aGlnaGxpZ2h0OjE3OTYyMTk5MTcwMTYz...

Alice In Wonderland: https://www.instagram.com/s/aGlnaGxpZ2h0OjE3OTQ0MTEwMzE5MTg4...

—

I find the top comment quite cynical, it’s literally the same as reading text on an ebook or even paperback. IMO once you get engrossed in a story the medium falls away. It’s cool that people are experimenting with a platform in a way maybe not originally intended, but that’s the beauty of it. No one can really foresee all the things you can do with a new platform/technology.

Re: Hundreds of thousands of people read novels on Instagram

#26

Post by gitgud »

This also reminds me of this company [1] wavve, which I first noticed on Indie Hackers. They basically convert podcasts to videos for social media and generate huge (Stripe-verified) profits from providing the service.

This just shows the enormity of the Instagram user-base. A tiny fraction of niche users on Instagram can add up to a massive market...

[1] https://www.indiehackers.com/product/wavve

Re: Hundreds of thousands of people read novels on Instagram

#27

Post by tomashubelbauer »

maxheadroom wrote: post #23
tomashubelbauer wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We've seen some interactive education projects on HN (the famous page on raytracing, the one where there's everything about curves, many audio-based projects) and they have had great reception. I think the reason why most devs still prefer plain-text resources over anything else is two-fold: interactive stuff tends to be less standard (because there isn't really a good standard for it) and harder to version than text…

> I think the reason why most devs still prefer plain-text resources over anything else is... I think you missed a vital reason and that is portability and sharability. No one needs to install anything special to read or edit a text file. It's the digital equivalent of paper and pen when you think about it and that makes it a popular platform for everyone to be able to consume it. Plus, back when we were all old and…

This is what I meant by standardization but I used a wrong term. I completely agree with you. At the basis, there will always need to be plain text, which should result in a wide variety of viewers and editors becoming available. In order for interactive visualizations to succeed among software devs, they can't be a SaaS, they need to become a part of the plumbing.

Re: Hundreds of thousands of people read novels on Instagram

#29

Post by raxxorrax »

DJHenk wrote: post #11

Wow, talking about putting the horse behind the carriage. So, people don't have the concentration to read a book anymore. But instead of fixing the cause of this, whatever it is, we mangle them through platforms that weren't designed for it and if there is some success, we claim that people are reading again. Of course they are not. It's a whole different experience. It can be nice and it can add to the experiences t…

Short stories often were excluded by the medium if they weren't assembled into collections, so I would think of this as a good addition.

The general critique about people reading fewer books is probably true. In my case it is just time constrains. Belletristic works are something I only read while travelling (which I do perhaps 1-2 times a year).

But yeah, Instagram wouldn't be my first choice, but I never tried it on the other hand.

Re: Hundreds of thousands of people read novels on Instagram

#30

Post by LandR »

silveroriole wrote: post #16
rolltiide wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it can add to the experiences that we already knew, but it is definitely not the same as reading a book. It is more like seeing the movie adaptation of the book. In full text, in text only form, verbatim Explain the distinction you are making again and why do you feel it is a productive distinction to make?

The article says there are animations which “bring the story to life”. Normal adult readers don’t need pictures and animations to aid engagement/understanding - people who are more used to watching movies or reading series of tweets/reaction gifs might.

I'm reading a book right now, as an adult, that has illustrations in it.

What harm? It's a little extra fun that the words are wrapped in some lovely illustrations by a well respected illustrator.

It's not detracting from the novel in the least.

Post reply on HN