List your age group and if you have
A.) more paper books than digital or
B.) about even or
C.) More digital than paper.
18-29 , 30-44 , 45+
Also what is your opinion on paper vs. digital? Will paper die out? Should it?
http://techcrunch.com/2014/12/12/analysts-claim-teens-still-prefer-print-books/
30-44 Age Group
I have maybe 2 e-books and I do not own an e-reader. I have hundreds of paper books and I prefer them hands down.
I think digital media and e-books/e-readers is a great thing and has it's place. I do think it has effected the paper media industry to a degree, but i don't think paper will ever truly go away. I hope it doesn't anyway.
Age Group of 18-29
I prefer reading digital copies of books more than owning physical copies. why? for convenience. I look at books sometimes the way i look at music on my phone, I'm a person that likes to carry ALL of my music on my phone. why you ask? cause one day i may feel like, shit i haven't heard that song in a while, i can go look through my phone and listen to it again, similarly with books, I have a lot of books. (they are digital copies) BUT one day i may be like, ah let me finish reading that book. i can look through my tablet and continue reading again, instead of holding onto multiple physical copies all the time, which after awhile will just get heavy, and will eventually give myself back pain, i can have my entire library with me at all times on my tablet. so personally i prefer to read books digitally.
My opinion on digital vs. paper, Paper copies will eventually die out, and it will get to the point where everyone will adapt to the digital age and we'll all do thing technologically. what i mean by that is, instead of holding on to notebook we'll be using our tablet to write things down, reading on our tablets, web-surfing on our tablets and so on. basically to keep it short and sweet, we're all going to have an All-in-One to do everything we need. and right now it's sort of getting there, with the nooks, the kindle fire, the apps on Android, iOS and Windows Mobile (if you use that)
Age group 18-29
my personal preference is paper copies of books, I like the tangible aspect of holding a physical book when learning. I don't own any kindle readers or anything like that, I tried the kindle app once didn't really like it.
I find being on the computer all the time is enough staring at a screen so reading a book is a nice break for my eyes.Â
In some ways I fully agree. It is very nice to be able to have everything at your fingertips. I like the idea of that as an augment to my physical book collection, but there is just something about having a real book in my hand.
Also to play devils advocate - what happens if the publishers or the developers of the apps and software decide to take away your ability to use the reader or the digital books themselves? Isn't there already a degree of DRM attached to e-books? I know some do not have that at all and other i'm sure do.
Do you really own the material at that point or are you just paying for "access?"
I do enjoy reading news articles and magazines on e-reader or tablet much more than the physical media. This is also an area where i think digital consumption is better for the consumer, and often cheaper. But when it comes to novels and text-books I don't know.
I remember when I was in the NAVY and they converted us from paper manuals to digital ones and it made my job 10 times harder when it came to tracing pcb diagrams. But... that is a ver very specific situation.
So I think they each have their place. =)
Yeah I am really bad about my posture at the PC and often suffer from neck and back pain due to long sessions at the desk. This is a reason i actually do want a tablet for reading articles and browsing forums. Then i could lay in bed or sit back in the recliner and surf. But the real work will always be done at the PC tower. PC MasterRace! =)
I have also noticed a huge increase to my light sensitivity from sitting is dark rooms staring at bright screens all the time. I need some Gunners!
18-29, I don't own an E-reader and I don't own a single E-book either (tons of paper books though). I'm not sure, the E-ink readers are pretty nice from what I could tell (no fatigue while reading, work fine even with direct sunlight, etc.), and I definitely see the benefit. BUT I still wouldn't switch to one even if I got it for free. Owning books and having them on a shelf is just something completely different. The transition to digital only in games wasn't really a problem since games only work with a PC or a console anyway, but having 100+ books that all become unavailable as soon as I lose the device (or it breaks, or whatever) doesn't sit right with me.
30+
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I still prefer the physical act of reading a paper text book, most of my books tend to be reference books, and it's great to be able to access them at any time.
I'm a little idiosyncratic, but there is some value in being able to physically touch the text on paper, and commit those words to memory (similar to hand-eye contact / co-ordination) to aid in the retention of those words to one's memory banks (this a useful study technique for me lol)
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I cannot envision paper text books (paper reference material) ever being made redundant, especially in relation to industry. Paper reference material is the convenient tool-of-choice in the 'blue-collar' sector, especially so, for workplace training situations.
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Age Group: 18-29
I own mostly paper, but it isn't so much a matter of choice than a matter of access in recent years. Really I prefer paper just because I find it impossible to really focus on reading off a screen. I do, however, think this problem would be greatly improved if A) I couldn't be distracted by opening a new tab right next to the book and B) I was able to hold the screen. For some reason reading off a laptop is at least 5x easier than off a monitor, and I'm pretty sure it would only be better with a tablet so I could actually lay down while reading.
I think reading wise, I might like an eReader just because I could set it down to read without having to prop the pages open, but otherwise I would say I prefer physical. I really do like having physical collections and copies of things. Also, you can't really have your book collection out for someone to say "Hey, I like that book too!" or some conversation thing like that.
I still don't know what to think about the whole thing. Right now my college is in the process of converting to digital. It has some nice features like instructor comments, but I really don't like the software they use, as you have to press a button to move to the next page instead of scrolling down forever. Practically I would say that I really like the idea of digital textbooks as they are both cheaper and less to carry, however I'm still pretty unsure about them reading wise. It would be interesting to hear from someone a few years down the line who might have started out reading digital. Maybe it's just what you're used to?
18-29
Audiobooks, I used to read all the time, before I got the internet, I still read all the time, just not books anymore.Instead I usually keep half a dozen audiobooks on the MP3 player at all times and put them on when doing cooking or doing something in the yard(though I never use headphones when walking/biking around town or hiking, gotta pay attention to whats going on around me).
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Libervox has a pretty good selection of public domain books that have been read by people that don't have a grating voice or a microphone made out of cheese, as does your friendly neighborhood torrent site, though some can be fake.
18-29
Own more physical books than digital books, but that's about to change quickly. Can't wait to get my hands on a Kobo Aura. I don't have the room for all these physical books, i would need to build a full library room dedicated to storing books with shelves. Especially if you consider that i love the Warhammer 40k franchise and how many books that has, and then add the normal other books into the equation. Besides all of this, i deal a lot in books relating to chemistry, metallurgy, thermodynamics and engineering in general. I need speed and ease of access for this, as in the capability to instantly search theories, projections, diagrams, formulae, and i can do this easily with an e-book reader by way of labeling and search. I do want to have hard copies of the books i absolutely love though. So the answer is 50-50. Paper won't die out, hell Russians have moved onto typewriters after the whole NSA shizz and in case of a total digital infrastructure shutdown of society in general due to extraordinary circumstances, we need the physical copies of all knowledge that ever was on which survival of humanity depends, and people like having copies that can last a lifetime at least. There's also the thing with niches, they always survive and there is always a group maintaining something old and re-manufacturing it, if paper books ever "go out of fashion" in the mainstream, you will still have the niche dealing in them.
Sorry everyone the link was broken apparently. I fixed it if anyone was having issues viewing the original article.
Well, 16-29 for me. I'm pretty indifferent. I can see the pros and cons for ebooks. I like being able to touch the pages among other aspects, but the space and weight savings are difficult to pass up. Right now I'm giving ebooks a shot so my opinion may change. The biggest issue in my mind with ebooks is developing a program that uses as little battery as possible because a big con with ebooks is the increased drain on the battery.Â
I prefer paper by far. I retain more and it is a much more pleasant way to read.
I do have a kindle and have as many e-books as i do proper ones. Usually digital copies of what I already own, or the classics that are in public domain (so good). I use it to have my library at hand when travelling. I find the kindle is great for long form articles 2,000 - 4,000 words, as I can have several of them from different publications with me.
Just found this article you might find interesting:
'Don't Judge a Book by its Cover: Tech-Savvy Teens Remain Fans of Print Books'
http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/news/2014/dont-judge-a-book-by-its-cover-tech-savvy-teens-remain-fans-of-print-books.html
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18-29 -
I prefer ebooks - easy to carry, cheaper, easier to get.. Since I live in Central Europe and prefer reading in English, or French, getting book that I like can be a pain. Better then to wait several days for Amazon to ship a book to me, its much better buying ebook for my Kindle. I feel, that people that argue for paper because it "feels more real" I say, that they should try manuscripts or even better - clay tablets. You get nice weight and feel...
I can speak for my mother, I gave her my older Kindle and she absolutely loves it, even though she almost always hates new technology :D She reads A LOT, and its much more conveniant for her to buy books on Kindle, or have me download some public domain books, than to go to library every week or two and bring back a carfull of books. Even though getting ebooks in Czech or Slovak language is sometimes quite a pain.
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Still, because our whole family is crazy into books, we ve got hundreds, maybe around a thousand books at home... many of them inherited from older generations.
Very interesting info. Thanks for sharing!
I can totally understand your reasons for preferring e-books in your situation.
I think it comes down to what works best for your needs. I like having a tablet around for certain things, and for traveling it makes a ton of sense. But when I'm home curling up with a good book, it has to be the paper variety.Â
18-29. I have more paper than digital, though my collection isn't very large at all.
I prefer paper. Most of that sentiment stems to using reading to get away from using electronics. Perhaps that would change if I read more than I do - the number of books I've read on my own time in the past four years is a little embarrassing to me.
That said, if it's for school, I only want it in paper if we're actually going to reference it directly during the semester or actually use it. The only times I've actually touched my CS class books was because I was on break and wanted to see what we would cover during the semester. Most teachers have slides that are more up-to-date on what they're teaching and what will be covered on tests.
I think paper may die out eventually, but it will be long in the future before that happens. Even with the green revolution, a lot of paper is used in business, and in academics teachers aren't very keen on ditching paper since it seems to hold a sentimental value to them, is a secondary way for them to get money, or they see it as a viable resource for valuable information. Besides, we'd have to convert all existing media from paper to digital in order to get rid of paper, which would take a very long time and might get the musicians upset.
Thing is, if you like to read in foreign language (which is, unfortunately, both English and French in my case), Kindle has one major upside over any book. If I don't understand fully any word I can just highlight it on it's touchscreen and the built-in offline dictionary will provide me with helpful dictionary entry.
