Over at the Guardian, Liz Bury wrote an article about a survey finding 62% of 16 to 24-year-olds prefer traditional books over their digital equivalents.
I was instant messaging with DE contributor Bryan Larrick about this and he made a great point: the real story is that 38% of young adults prefer e-books. The Guardian has the headline backwards.
Bryan had more exhaust: “So in about 10 years, e-books have eroded the print market to the point that 38% of teens prefer them? That is a massive disruption that hasn’t been seen, ever.”
We used to call Blackberries and Palm Treos, ‘smartphones’. Now? Not so much.
What we call ‘e-books’ today will be different years from now and so too will peoples’ preferences for or against them.