

Study: Teens Think Your eBooks Are Lame, Prefer Actual Books - wyclif
http://litreactor.com/news/study-teens-think-your-ebooks-are-lame-prefer-actual-books

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jwco
Here are a couple reasons why teen me (I'm almost 30 now) may not have
preferred eBooks over actual books:

1) I had only moved once in my life, and did not appreciate how much physical
space books take up during a move. After moving ~4-5 times since going to
college and graduate school, I have vowed to buy only eBooks now.
Conveniently, I am also finally basically done buying academic textbooks (for
which eBook versions can be scarce), having bought most of the ones I plan to
use (often enough to not borrow a library copy) during my PhD and beyond.

2) In my experience, eBooks don't make it easy to annotate. Copies of my books
from A Great Gatsby to Introduction to Biology are rife with pencilled in
thoughts, arrows, underlines, etc. I've even enjoyed reading notes left by
previous students in copies of books I've borrowed from the library (I am
thinking of some comments I vehemently disagreed with in the Harvard library
copy of Sartre's Search for Method, and to which I responded in turn). In that
sense, library books might be more social than today's eBooks, as they can be
both shared and annotated.

~~~
bmelton
If those are the top 2 reasons, I suggest these as 3 and 4:

3) You lose the 'cover' of the book to signal to people what you're reading.
Hanging out at Starbucks all day reading whatever it is you're reading is a
good way to encourage conversations with other people who like the
book/genre/author/style. This might not sound like too big a deal until you
realize that teens use this to find sexual partners. (No, I'm not guessing
here.)

4) They haven't yet had to lug their $365, hard cover, 800 page, 20 pound
edition of "Calculus" from the dorm side of the campus to the science quad a
mile and a half away.

~~~
gte910h
re 3: there are covers to allow you to put the book cover on your kindle

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bmelton
_A_ paper cover? (Or are you talking about something I'm not aware of?) Sure,
but if I buy the "To Kill a Mockingird" cover and start reading another book,
it doesn't change the cover.

The point I was trying to imply without saying it outright is that guys will
take different books to places they'll be best received. There's an _entirely_
different vibe in DC's "Adams Morgan" district than there is in the Shaw
neighborhood, and the savvy pickup artist isn't likely to be reading the same
book in both places.

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petercooper
As a book collector, I prefer print books, but I think we will have a long
term need for both until e-book readers are _as good as print_ at the things
print still wins on (speed, clarity, layout, sense of permanence).

I buy e-books but only for things that are disposable, fiction, immediate,
that have flat 'boring' designs, or that I otherwise don't need to scan
through. E-book layouts are usually hideous (PDFs of print copies are an
exception) and readers like the Kindle are useless for reference or anything I
need to flick through. My Kindle can pull off a whole page every two seconds.
I can flick through about 20 pages a second looking for something in print.

~~~
chc
I'm guessing you have an old model of Kindle? My Nook takes less time on
average to switch pages than I do to turn a physical page and scan to the
beginning of the text.

~~~
petercooper
Nope, the latest one. Against print, it's a wash for going sequentially from
one page to the next.. but I also need to flick through many pages a second to
scan or just get a feel for a book, and 1 page per second or two doesn't
provide that.

I also frequently have multiple books open and jump between them scanning a
lot as I do a lot of research. Again, not ideal for things like the Kindle,
alas. But that's why I think we need _both_ e-books and print.

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libraryatnight
I'd agree ebooks are lame. They're great for easy transport, and quite useful
for college, but a lot of the fun of owning a book is lost.

I can't have a signed copy of my favorite book with an ebook. When I have a
party or gathering at home people browse my shelves and spark conversation
about certain books they've read, or thumb through others they haven't, this
doesn't happen with my kindle sitting on my desk in the office. Buying a book
and caring for it can mean you'll have it a lifetime, I don't know that this
is the case with ebooks yet. They still feel like rentals. I have a few old
books handed down from my parents, they have a charm and character all their
own, something lost with ebooks. Some books I own are sentimental, my first
copies of The Lord of the Rings, and a Wizard of Earthsea, I've had since I
was very young. I can touch and smell and experience those books today.

Now, many teens might not care about the above, but the coolness factor may be
tied to similar thought. For instance the vanity of walking around with the
hottest teen novel or having it in your bedroom at home. Or, I remember in
high school kids carrying copies of Fight Club and Clockwork Orange not just
because they were reading them but also as part of whatever counter culture
image they were going for. The author sort of touches on this, "But does size
really matter that much? My copy of The Perks Of Being A Wallflower was so
small I could fit it in my second-hand jacket when I was an angsty high
schooler." For teens what they're passionate about and what they're into is
part of their identity and trying to set themselves apart, and they like to
show it off. Just look at the kids doodling their favorite band names on a
binder, or listing every book, TV show, and movie they like on Facebook.

When I worked at Barnes & Noble a lot of teens enjoyed hardcovers that had
some sort of unique flair. Embossing, elaborate art, books that opened in non-
traditional ways. There's something to be said for the tangible aspects of the
book. Appreciating its make.

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27182818284
I hate the space physical books take up, but the quality of ebook readers and
the fact that I feel like I don't really own the book, make me very hesitant
to by ebooks. I still have, but only a few and those ebooks were DRM-free so
they are mine _mine_ not just mine.

~~~
freehunter
Every Kindle book I get, I immediately strip the DRM. In most Kindle formats,
this is a pretty simple task. I never plan on sharing the book, but I don't
like the idea that something I bought can be revoked. The repo man can only
take what's not fully mine.

~~~
jdeseno
Haven't you actually purchased a license to the book contents and not an
actual book?

~~~
freehunter
Technically, you're probably right. I don't care. Companies can (and do)
weasel their way into anything by saying it was part of the license agreement
you signed. Fair use is fair use in my opinion. Buying the physical copy gives
me the real thing, forever. Buying the digital copy for basically the same
price shouldn't take my rights away based on a license.

Don't even get me started on Amazon's new Kindle format that's literally and
strictly a simple PDF wrapped in encryption. I bought one of them for a class
expecting to read it on my Touchpad, but apparently it only works on
Mac/PC/iPad and nothing else. Complete bullshit. This is why people break DRM.

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jasonkostempski
Ebooks don't work well for signaling. How is everyone going to know how cool
you are for reading whatever it is your reading unless they see it sticking
out of your backpack?

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mikegerwitz
I have an 8-month old son. I hope he grows up to enjoy physical books rather
than eBooks. My reasons are many.

1\. Most eBooks today are DRM-laden and try to lock you into a specific
vendor. Since I'm sure most readers here are well aware of problems with books
and DRM, I will leave it at that. (defectivebydesign.org) If you can find DRM-
free eBooks, this is not an issue.

2\. I stare at a computer/device screen all day and he will likely be doing
the same by the time he has an opinion on eBooks. I enjoy the feeling and look
of actual sunlight or a lamp reflected off of the page. That said, you could
get a device with e-ink to solve that issue. The problem then is, if you're a
free software user, your choices are limited / you will install another OS on
your device, in which case your money is still going to support the
proprietary software originally on the device.

3\. Texture, smell, etc. People call me weird when they see me crack open a
new book, complement (or express my disgust at) the quality of the pages and
appreciate that new book smell. I appreciate the weight of the book. Books are
beautiful things (minus the dead tree part --- that alone is enough reason for
some to ditch physical books). You do not get that experience with eBooks. \-
What also of certain childrens' books like pop-up books, or the books with the
different textures to feel the fuzzy lion or rough brick? Sure, your books
isn't going to animate itself in the sense of a video, but there's an entirely
different experience.

4\. Size. This article mentions it. Any eBook I do read, I do so at my PC.
Otherwise, I grow incredibly frustrated. Which leads into my next point:

5\. Spacial memory. Even if I cannot remember the details of a particular
paragraph, I can remember roughly where that paragraph was. I can estimate the
location of the page, open up to it and flip around a little until I find it.
The argument against that would be the fact that you can search on an eBook
--- and yes, that is immensely helpful, to the point where I would I have
eBook copies of certain physical books I use for reference. But eBooks destroy
that spacial memory --- everything is just on a flat screen. Therefore, it
_feels_ different when I read an eBook. \- This same concept applies to, for
example, code. When I develop in vim, I do so across multiple monitors with
many splits. I can remember where my code is specially in that sense, per
file. However, it does not help me for the _contents_ of the file, as that
still requires scrolling within the windows. Therefore, if I am doing a code
review, for example, I will print out the code. I can easily reference certain
portions and annotate it. I can lay out all the code and look at it as a
whole.

6\. Annotations. I have a writing/drawing tablet. I can annotate documents on
my PC and I find it especially useful for doing so. I annotate my books
heavily. Heavily. No page goes untouched. If I were ever to lose my book
(theft, fire, carelessness, etc), I will have lost countless hours of work and
research. ...so what's the problem? Is the annotation format both free and
standard? Can I view it on any device without saving it as a PDF/image/etc?
Not usually.

eBooks are good for certain things. It's great to have both an eBook and a
physical copy, so long as it is DRM-free. I just cannot make the switch,
partially due to quirky reasons. Perhaps, by the time my son is old enough to
have an opinion on the manner, devices will evolve to a point that eliminates
many of the above points. Until then, the guy who spends the majority of his
day at a PC would rather have a physical book to enjoy.

~~~
chc
FYI, all modern Nooks run Android. The original model ran a proprietary
system, but the modern Nooks are all Android and Barnes & Noble even has an
unofficial policy of helping people root the tablets if they want to.

~~~
mikegerwitz
I'm aware (my girlfriend owns a color one), but they still run their own
proprietary software atop of the OS, in addition to providing DRM-infected
eBooks (but you have the option to put your own eBooks on the device, which
can be DRM-free). Their TOS also states that they can remotely access your
device at any time (stating that the act of doing so to apply upgrades may
possibly harm your device), among other details I do not want to begin ranting
on here.

~~~
darasen
I own a Sony PRS-T1 and have it rooted as well so that it runs Android. The
Sony also allows me to handwrite notes into the document.

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nthitz
Study: Adults still have no idea what teenagers want.

~~~
roc
Because teens largely don't know what they want and reflexively reach for a
position distinguishable from the one put forth by adults.

If their parents were pushing dead-tree books on them, you don't think they'd
prefer it that way, do you?

~~~
gdilla
Extending this - will our kids reflexively hate Facebook because their parents
are on it (and were there first)? I wouldn't be surprised.

~~~
roc
It's worth noting that at a certain point things achieve such cultural
penetration that very few teens rebel against them in that way. [1]

At some point they're simply treated as ubiquitous _human_ endeavors.

[1] 7-11, Coke, iPods, Nike, McDonalds, Levis

When teens resist adults on these points, it usually manifests in minor
styling differences or personalization. (cross brand promotion, garish colors,
etc)

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AkThhhpppt
Because they don't own enough paper books to be afraid of bookshelf collapse
yet?

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jesseendahl
To me, this just says ebooks have been done poorly so far (which they have
been). Once eBooks improve, you'll see this change.

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Feoh
Teens professing a hatred of what's widely accepted? SHOCKING!

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darksaga
My whole family have always been avid readers. Even the younger kids (13-18
years) still read and exchange books on a regular basis at our family
gatherings. A while back I asked why none of them had started reading on their
i-pads or gotten an e-reader. Their answers were pretty interesting.

They all mentioned not being able to fully utilize their imagination. On a
paperback novel, you have the cover artwork, you have the author's bio, and
the back cover art. They said most e-readers don't have these and it takes
away from the experience. They also said the feel of a book in their hands is
an experience they know and love. Even the simplicity of turning pages is
lost. Holding a little tablet, they never knew if they getting close to the
end of the story or not. With a paperback, it was easy to visually see and
know how close you were to the end of the book - and it felt like more of an
accomplishment.

I found it pretty enlightening. A lot of simple things people take for granted
which can't easily be replaced by a better technology.

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RobAtticus
Alternate theory: Having an eBook reader might show a commitment to be a
reader (i.e., you do it for fun, not just because it's homework), and teens
don't want to be known as "readers" (because it's lame at that age).

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AzAngel
The thing is these very teens will be seen walking around with the Hunger
Games or whatever the recent teen "must read" is. They brag about having read
the last Harry Potter in 4 hours. It has become a cool thing to actually be
literate in the latest teen book craze.

~~~
chc
Yes, but that's a very specific and fairly small set of books. Reading the
Harry Potter and Hunger Games books is not the same thing as generally
identifying as a reader. Carrying a Hunger Games book identifies you as a
Hunger Games fan — carrying a Kindle identifies you as somebody who likes
books other than _The Hunger Games_.

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vellum
Teens also have better eyesight. I used to read a lot of paper books when I
was a kid. By the time I got to college, the only thing I read were textbooks,
because I hated squinting at tiny print. Publishers have an incentive to be
stingy with print size, since they can save money on paper. I’ve started
reading more books again on my computer, because I can scale the font size to
24 and there’s a backlight.

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brudgers
I suspect that teens recognize that ebooks are inherently cheap compared to
print books.

It's not just that they're poor socially from a digital perspective, they're
poor socially form a physical perspective as well...sharing or giving an ebook
lacks the intimacy of sharing and giving a physical object.

eBooks are passionless, and teens care deeply about passion.

BTW, "lame" is stale.

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c0nsumer
Don't forget that books also have a super low cost to entry, are very easy to
loan, and aren't a huge loss if you replace them.

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dsr_
My 6 and 8 year old kids love ebooks. They have a rooted Nook Simple Touch and
access to a Color Nook and a Motorola Droid. They like the Color Nook best
(big screen, can play games) but are perfectly happy to read from any of the
devices.

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basicallydan
I was only a teen a few years ago, and they probably don't like eBooks not for
any rational reason - it's probably something to do with being cool and
different.

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megamark16
Give them a few years to get into college and start buying actual textbooks.

~~~
Avshalom
If the primary reason someone switches to ebooks is so they can carry more
textbooks, I really doubt that will do much to shake any ebooks-are-lame
attitude they might have.

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PythonDeveloper
They didn't get a choice when we gave them books, why should we give them a
choice when it comes to eBooks?

Suck it teens, you get what you get. Be happy that we lurnz you to sp3l.

