Are E-Books The Next Evolutionary Step?

  E-Books and Printed books are in a serious fight these days. Many prefer books today too but it seems that e-books are slowly but with certainty are taking the market. Both the traditional printed books and the e-books have their advantages and disadvantages. Here are some of them.

 The biggest concern with the e-books is the lack of privacy they provide. Though when it comes to books it is private, between the text and the reader. While in the e-book it seems that we are in an unacknowledged focus group. Have you heard the term Guerilla Editors?  Well to be honest, if you are reading an e-book from a legitimate source, like an online e-book store you are one of them. The data of each and every action you take is recorded. The data then is used by the editors to make books more readable. It does not stay the same; the books because of this sort of marketing strategy become just a mean of business. They do not remain the literary pieces they are supposed to be. The piece of art and beauty is transformed into a mere object for a salesman to sell.   Other than that a study by Kate Garland a lecturer of psychology at the University of England states that by reading e-book the reader is likely to forget the context he or she has read. The short-term memory of a human is weak and volatile, therefore when reading an e-book they forget what they have read. While reading a book the situation changes. The reader can recall it much quicker, as the human brain tends to memorize things with a physical address and the printed books provide it in a much better way.   Though not much visible difference can be seen in both of them for the short-term, long-term memorization suggests something different. When we tend to recall something there are two things, “Knowing it” and “Just Know It”. Knowing it means the reader is certain and will recall the knowledge with much ease and solidity. On the other hand when the e-book reader tries to recall something they will most certainly fall in the just know it category, their memory will be vague and volatile.   Then there is a difference in screens as well. Mobile phone reading is considered the worst kind. The smaller the screen the more you have chances of forgetting the data. Also the flipping of pages to go to some important part that the reader would like to recall is much less stressing than flipping screen after screen to receive at that point. The problem, these small things stress the brain unnecessarily and drink up a part of the capability the reader has of understanding.  The reader of books will grasp the knowledge quicker than the e-book reader. Although eventually they will both meet at the finish line, they will have to read more than the print readers. Garland did a test on his psychology students about it. They were given the Economics text to read and eventually both groups read them. The process however for the e-book readers was lengthier. They read the text a multiple of times before grasping it fully.   E-books have a lot of issues but still it is considered a growing trend amongst all the demographics. The printed material is going to live in future that is for sure, but where will they stand? Some suggest that they will rival up the art on the walls. The reason is that when surveyed in many countries, the smell, the touch, the weight and other physical attributes of the printed material seemed to be more attractive than the e-books. Die hard readers will always cherish the feel of having a physically fellable collection of classics and modern literature side by side on their shelves. But no one knows for sure at what price? For the better or for the worse?  E-books might be a growing trend, but some things are best if kept in the traditional way. Some types of books are good in the printed format while others can evolve towards the new trend. E-books can be useful for quicker formatting and updating, which means that in future we can think of course related books to be in the digital format. The printed books are for the lovers of printed books, the digital books are for the lover of digital books.  Although the society is trending towards the digital format, I still prefer to feel the touch of a paperback in my hands and smell the freshly printed paper's aroma. The crisp of each page turning the crackling sound of it... I definitely will not switch my interest to the digital format, at least the majority of it. Will You?