Not so very long ago—just a few decades, in fact—most professional and aspiring writers used typewriters to create their manuscripts, which were then mailed to an editor for review. The editor would then read the piece and comment on it—using a pen or pencil, and mail it back. The exchange of physical documents could add weeks to the process of developing a manuscript for publication.

If the editor liked the final manuscript, the book or article would be published. Hundreds, thousands, or even millions of copies would be loaded onto trucks and sent out into a world full of readers. However, this exciting moment might happen years after the author typed the first words of a novel.

Computers and the internet have changed all of that—or most of it. Today, writers and editors use word processing programs, email, and online sharing apps to streamline the process of developing a manuscript. And modern technology has changed many other aspects of publishing as well. Before the invention of online sharing apps and easy-to-use web page templates, newspaper editors and book publishers determined what readers could read. Today, an ambitious writer can post stories, articles, or chapters to her own blog or web site and have readers eagerly absorbing her words literally seconds later.

While books are still produced as physical objects—and many readers continue to prefer this form, a book can appear online as an ebook the same day it is released in print. With one ebook device, a reader can carry dozens of books around in his arms and have access to millions of online sources. Newspapers and magazines also look much different. Before, people had to wait an entire month or more for their favorite magazine. Today, many magazines are only published online, and they post new content daily.

Newspapers have also moved online, and their notoriously brutal deadlines work a little differently. Instead of needing all of the stories for an issue by midnight, for instance, to make it into the printed daily issue, an editor can release stories throughout the day, sending alerts to the phones of subscribers to announce each major story. If new information is uncovered, the article can be updated immediately.

The experience of reading the news is also quite different now. Most news sites provide links to related stories, and readers can "talk back" to an article's author, or communicate with other readers about the ideas in the story, using the comments section.

Essentially, computers and the internet have changed the nature of publication in ways that readers and writers of the 20th century would have struggled to comprehend. And it remains to be seen what the next generation—your generation—will do to transform reading and writing, perhaps beyond your parents' ability to imagine.