Hot take - the printing press is one of, if not the most, important technological inventions in all of time. Let’s take a travel back quite a few years in history…To set the scene, the year is 1440 AD. I know that’s the first time you thought of when you heard the printing press. You immediately assumed I was talking about Johannes Gothenburg and his 15th century revolutions invention. However, you need to take a deeper dive quite a few centuries back to get to the original invention of the printing press.
Our journey actually starts in the 3rd century. During this century, individuals used a woodblock printing technique on textiles. This transitioned to printing text during the Tang Dynasty of China between the 6th and 10th AD centuries.
Though the foundation of this invention did originate with the Tang Dynasty of China, Gothenburg does deserve his rightful place in the cultivation of this invention in history. Because of his invention, books were able to be mass produced for the first time in history. Prior to this invention being created, books were being transcribed by hand on wooden blocks. Now, I will say, compared to text, both of these ways were incredibly slow. However, for his time, this invention was life changing.
Rightfully assumed, the printing press was created to solve one primary problem. The problem being that the demand for books and texts were increasing and there was no way to keep up with the increasing production with the technology at the time. As a result, the printing press allowed for the mass production of uniform matter. Not only did this allow for mass production, but it also allowed for text to be cheaper and more accessible to the public. In turn, more people were able to access information and become more informed and educated. So really, the printing press is to credit for the accessibility of our books, magazines, pamphlets, and yes, even the dreaded textbooks.
Overall, the printing press revolutionized the way that society receives information in the form of text. In reality, this invention did not just have impact on the youth or older parts of society, but it had an equal impact on all areas of society. Therefore, everyone is able to benefit from this invention in all walks of life. But with any good thing in life, it has to have its negatives. However, in my opinion, I believe that the positives of the printing press significantly weigh out its negatives. As a result of the materials necessary for printing and publishing text, toxins in both ink and paper were emitted. The uses of these toxins led to widespread pollution in the modern industrial area. Another negative of the printing press was the necessary exploitation of children and middle-class workers during this time. Though it is not necessarily this way now because of technology, it certainly was a major issue when the printing press first arrived on the market. Lastly, it was a large issue at the time that the printing press allowed for secular books to be widely published. These secular books challenged many ideals of the Church at the time and caused conflict between printing companies and churches across the world.
The printing press has certainly revolutionized the way our world goes about producing and distributing information in a mass way. Theoretically, we can thank Johannes Gutenburg for the textbooks that we dread reading, the books we enjoy curled up with a cup of coffee, and the magazines we enjoy reading at the nail salon. So thank you Mr. Gutenburg for the revolutionary creation that you created many years ago that we are still benefitting from today!
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