Books, with the actual physical paper you can touch, have defined learning for centuries. That has rapidly changed in the past few years, with many educational institutions shifting to digital reading formats. As the change is gradual, modern students find themselves with both physical and electronic versions of books. Do computer-savvy millennials and Gen Zers prefer one format to the other? The answer is more surprising than one might imagine.
The Rise of E-Book Usage, as Shown by a Popular Print Book
Readers are definitely buying e-books more. For some, this trend indicates a destiny-shaping clash between technology and literacy in the style of Fahrenheit 451, the Ray Bradbury classic. As the story goes in novel, a TV-obsessed dystopian America burns books to keep the population desirably ignorant and easily controllable. Many an essay has been written on the topics of the ability of technology to corrupt, whereas books have always enlightened the populace for the better.
Interestingly enough, Bradbury himself strongly opposed his famous novel being published as an e-book for years. That’s fairly ironic, as literary devices in Fahrenheit 451 would say, for a sci-fi author. However, in 2011, he finally approved an e-book, as publishers even back then didn’t consider contract renewals without an option to publish in electronic formats. There’s no better incident to illustrate how widespread e-book usage has become.
The Surprising Resilience of Print Books among Modern Readers
Modern students might be able to read Bradbury’s story on a screen, but that hasn’t actually diminished the sales of physical publications. A study conducted by Pew Research in 2019 indicated that over 60 percent of American adult readers read print publications. In comparison, only about 25 percent read e-books. The pattern hasn’t changed significantly in the past five years.
The trend stays true with student survey samples as well. In 2010, The New York Times published an article about student preference to print books in the age of all things digital. (One student even quipped that print books don’t get blank screens.) In 2019, as many as 80 percents of students surveyed by the Australian Publishers Association said they prefer physical books to e-books.
Why Students Continue to Love Print Books
The resilience of the print book when people even date online seems remarkable. There are no definitive answers to why students still prefer bulky textbooks to colorful e-books on screens. There’s only anecdotal evidence to go by. As the Times interviewee indicated, students may simply like the fact that they don’t have to charge print books.
Print books are easier to look at the human eye. Reading a long essay on Fahrenheit 451 on a screen that emits blue light, for example, could strain the eyes and break concentration. There are preliminary studies to indicate that people retain information better after reading on printed paper rather than on screens.
Even young students can be old-fashioned about the look and feel of books. Students surveyed by the Australian Publishers Association gushed about the smell of new publications and the immersion offered by turning of a physical page. Some liked actually turning pages to mindlessly tapping on a screen. Print books, to them, were simply more interactive.
Students May Actually Prefer Both Formats
To say that modern, always-online students prefer print books is too simple of an answer. While data shows the superiority of the print book still, it also indicates how modern readers are consuming publications in multiple formats. Not only are modern students reading, say, a Fahrenheit 451 essay, they are also listening to an audio format of that essay and interacting with textbooks exercises online.
The future of books, it seems, is not limited to either print or electronic. It’s shifting to a versatile format. While students in surveys say they prefer print books, they also prefer to have e-books at hand when traveling. They may listen to audiobooks when driving. And at school, they are now directed to use e-textbooks with digitally interactive objects.
The trend is seen in the general reader population as well. Students and adult readers alike consume books in a format that’s most comfortable to them given the context. Readers may prefer to lie back in bed and flip through a print book. But when they are en route on the train, they want to read an e-book on their smartphones.
Young students are highly flexible in this regard. They are more likely to adapt to new trends without necessarily giving up on tradition. This is great news for publishers. Print books mostly likely would continue to generate revenue in the years to come, where e-books also rise in popularity. Rather than technology clashing with tradition, the two are merging to cater to personalized preferences.