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In modern day society, people must make the decision of whether they want to read a hard copy of a book or an electronic copy of a book. Traditional printed books are still common and used in workplaces, in schools, and for leisure. However, electronic books are slowly shrinking the market for real books. People are becoming more environmentally cautious, therefore they consider the amount of paper used to print a book and sometimes view it as waste. Traditional printed books are also heavy and take up a lot of space. They are beneficial for people who like to highlight and underline texts that they read, and pages can be bookmarked and referenced at a later date.
Electronic books are on the rise. iPads and the Amazon Kindle are means by which people can read ebooks. Ebooks are electronic books that can be read on these devices. These devices are lightweight and can fit almost anywhere, while containing numerous books and pieces of information, all weighing less than a pound. No paper is wasted, and storage space is maximized due to the amount of dense content these devices can hold. Page numbers can be referenced just as easily as pages in a traditional book. These devices are very useful, but they also have the ability to extremely strain a person's eyes. The Kindle, for example, is very small and the light from the screen of the iPad strains the eyes as well.
Even though we have electronic technology that allows us to view many books using only one device, traditional books are tough to replace for a variety of reasons. First, many people who are older prefer to have a book to hold, because it feels more personal and people can mark up the books however they want. Schools still use traditional books because they cannot expect every student to be able to afford a Kindle or iPad. Some colleges, however, let students decide whether they want to buy the traditional book or the ebook as a course material. Traditional books are hard to replace because we already have so many of them and we are not going to throw them all away just because we have technology that allows us to read them electronically. The publishing industry still exists and produces hard copies of books every day. The publishing industry is not going to die out very fast. It might die out slowly, but until the price of electronic devices that allow us to read ebooks decreases, publishing companies are still making a lot of money. Lastly, habit reinforces our ways. It has been habit for so many years to pick up books and read them, and reading books electronically is a step in a new direction that people will have to get used to over time.
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