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If you think of millennials as a group of young people who are enchanted by their smartphones and tablets, you’ll want to think twice after reading this article. According to a new study, 92% of college students prefer to do their reading the india email list traditional way, with paper pages instead of pixels.
This conclusion comes to us from American University and linguistics professor Naomi S. Baron , author of the book Words Onscreen: The Fate of Reading in a Digital World .
After assembling a team, Baron conducted research that analyzed 300 university students in the United States , Slovakia , Japan and Germany . The analysis consisted of a survey about the study and reading habits of the students in question.
The conclusion drawn from this investigation left no room for doubt: physical books were the choice of 92% of those interviewed , who selected paper over a variety of electronic devices.
Millennial Generation: why do they prefer paper to digital?
Steven Hernandez , a student at the University of Arizona , is among those who prefer to read on paper. “I believe the possibility and likelihood of distraction is much higher when it comes to online learning tools,” the student wrote in an editorial for the university newspaper.
“The advantage of e-books is that they are cheap and allow for interaction with the user, but they require integration and education in the technology to be used… Integration that students like me are not used to,” he added.
The main reasons students prefer paper books, Baron said , were the lack of distractions that are available on computers, as well as the headaches and eye strain that can result from staring at a screen for so long.
“When I asked them what they didn’t like about reading on a screen, they said they also liked having a sense of how much they had read of each book,” Baron said . “Usually you can see at the bottom of the screen how much you have left to read, but it’s a completely different feeling than knowing how much you have left by looking at the pages.”
And then there are the aspects of the reading experience that computers simply can't replicate (yet). Slovak students in particular point out that they enjoy the smell of books .
It’s not just college students who prefer to spend their time with a book rather than an e-reader. In 2015, e-book sales fell in the United States , and the same happened in the United Kingdom , proving that the future may not be digital after all.
