Is Digital Storytelling the Future?

The Technology of Storytelling

Do you think someone could tell a good story via iPad? In Joe Sabia’s TED talk, “The Technology of Storytelling” Sabia takes us on a frenetic three and a half minute journey via novel use of his ipad. The story’s main character, Lothar Meggendorfer, is referred to as a revolutionary because he changed static books into dynamic books! Meggendorfer happens to be the the inventor of the pop-up book! I’m sure we all remember being delighted by pop-up books as children… and perhaps we still are! The ability to touch and feel and be awed and surprised by a jumping tiger from a bush, or an animated gesture in a pop-up book amazed and enraptured us, and I think we can all agree that for children’s books at least, pop-up books were way cooler than regular ol’ board books.

While initially the TED Talk itself seems a bit hokey, the concept itself is an interesting one. Sabia showed a true myriad of ways to compliment a story using an ipad, and the possibilities seem limitless…Could the iPad really dethrone the book as a better storytelling device like Meggendorfer did for the book?

This concept of the “Technology of Storytelling” intrigues me, and makes me think of a few ways that I could personally expound on this topic. When I was a kid, I didn’t think anything about my Grandmother’s old note card recipes- and she had a lot of them. I was too young when she died to really appreciate her effect on my family heritage, and my cooking. Now I love holding onto these perfectly script printed recipes in my grandmother’s recipes, and even love seeing them worn and stained from the years and years of my family turning to her 4”x5” recipes. They’re a time capsule that fills me with love and remembrance of one of my family’s beloved matriarchs.  There is something so wonderfully intangible about the feelings I get when I see her handwriting on a recipe, I remember a different memory about her every time, and hope I’m doing her proud with my own biscuits.

Could this idea of digital story telling actually improve upon our family recipes, history and legacy keeping? Could I now take videos of my own mother making her famous tomato jam, and keep that video for all time to show my future kids and grandkids? Would the story get more dynamic? Or would we lose a piece of our family history, and also get rusty from lack of use of my own imagination. Would it feel as enchanted as a magical portrait from harry potter? Or would it feel depressing? What do you think?