This is a guest post by Kathleen Ramirez, a Millennial with a passion for all things digital.
Digital Reading Benefits
Infographic: Sharp USA
For many Millennials, paper reading is as good as dead. Digital technology has evolved so much that every young person is dependent on technological advancement, from working to reading.
Digital technology has had a profound effect on the traditional book publishing and retailing industries, and digital reading has become a trend despite numerous reports to the contrary.
Handheld devices, already a big part of digital technology, will continue to evolve more in the future. The Independent recently published a list of some of the best e-book readers that are perfect for reading as well as budget-friendly:
- Amazon Kindle Oasis
- Kobo Aura One
- Bookeen Cybook Ocean
- Amazon Kindle Voyage
- Kobo Glo HD
- Kindle Paperwhite
- Kobo Aura H2O
But why would you need a digital reader? What advantages does it have over paper reading?
Scroll And Browse
For a Millennial, using a digital book is magical. You don’t have to look for a page, turn the book’s pages or search for your page. Instead, you just scroll.
You can also browse all day long without ever leaving the comfort of your armchair. Scroll through Amazon and flip through hundreds of books while sipping your tea or coffee. Once you’ve found what you’re looking for, one click and you can start reading.
Shareability
You can email or loan an e-book to a friend easily. You don’t even need to go to the library or wait for delivery. Again, click on “Send And Receive” and presto–a new book.
Search
Are you struggling to remember where you read one of your favorite phrases? It’s extraordinarily easy to perform a text search of every single book in your e-library. This is hard to do with a physical book, let alone with your entire library.
Text to Speech
Are your eyes tired from staring at a screen all day long? Close them and have your Kindle read to you. Text to Speech reduces eye strain, improves foreign language learning, and promotes listening skills.
Unlimited Storage Space
Is your physical space limited? Not enough space for all your books in your library? Tablets and e-book readers can hold thousands of books on one device. Extra memory is not much bigger than a fingernail and can hold tens of thousands of files. Keep your entire library on a single device and forget physical constraints. Even better, most of today’s devices automatically save their content online, so it’s easy to replace your content even if you lose your device.
With all these advantages, don’t worry about the paper vs digital debate: it will take care of itself.
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It seems to me that there is room for all modes of reading, digital, print and audio and that we are all better for reading in any form.
Very true. We all have our preferences, though 🙂
I am indeed a millennial (I’m not actually a jaguar, the Gravatar picture is just for dramatic emphasis), and I agree that digital reading does have several advantages. Digital readers like Kindles are great for traveling, due to their light weight and high storage capacity.
That being said, I strongly disagree with the belief that paper reading is dead. Paper reading will always have one significant advantage over digital reading: human anatomy and physiology. Reading off a screen is much harder on the human brain than reading off of paper, and consequently tires us out much faster. I find that I’m able to read faster, for longer periods of time, off of paper than off of computer screens. I also feel like I’m able to retain the information I glean from paper better, but I’m not 100% certain about this. It’s also quicker and easier to mark up paper sources than pdfs. When you have to read the equivalent of several books a week, and then right papers on them, all of these factors matter.
For these reasons, I will always prefer paper reading over digital. The exceptions are when I’m traveling, or when I can’t afford printing (which is a big problem when your school’s run by a bunch of cheapskates who charge students a fortune for printing).
Interesting points. I have come across research that agrees with you on pretty much everything you’ve said, including the information-retaining part. Now, I just have to find it and share. As I’d read it on a screen, however, I can’t for the life of me remember where I’d seen it in the first place 😀
Haha! It’s good to hear that I wasn’t just spouting nonsense this time.
I am a long way from being a ‘Millennial’, as you know, Nicholas. (Unless you mean the 20th century, then I’m in)
I have also long avoided electronic reading as much as I can. After all, I spend up to four hours a day reading and writing electronically, on a PC. However, as I grow older, one thing from that list appeals to me a great deal.’Text to Speech’ might just get me reading again. (Or listening, to be precise) Now, how much are those Kindles again?…
Best wishes, Pete.
’Text to Speech’ is something I never did get into, probably because I don’t spend much time in a car. Friends who drive a lot swear by podcasts and such. As for Kindles, you can have one for a song nowadays. Just make sure it’s a good one. Something by ABBA, perhaps? 🙂
🙂 I don’t listen to anything in a car. I was thinking of using headphones on a laptop perhaps. I believe it depends on the skill of the reader though, so I doubt I would enjoy a ‘robotic’ voice.
It’s audiobooks for you, then. Kindle does come across as rather robotic.