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Will e-books replace traditional books

Will ebooks replace traditional books in the coming 30 years?

Will people choose the lighter, more efficient ebook rather than carrying many heavier books?

Or Will people keep on using traditional books because they are friendly to the eye, unlike ebook readers?

What impact will this have on the society in terms of quantity and quality of the education of new generations?

What do you personally prefer? Do you think of changing? Why?

Topics: books change ebooks

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Farrukh Yakubov 50+
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TED Translator Associate

Dec 11 2011: E-books are things of today, they will expire at some point as any other technology of recent years. When it comes to real books, they have been around since very long ago, so they are likely to make it long enough into the future.
Shweta Verma
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Dec 9 2011: i would always prefer traditional books! where will i write my notes and side comments other wise!
Adam Bowcutt
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Dec 9 2011: Probably. There are only so many trees.

I personally prefer traditional books & turning pages. However, ebooks appear to be the future.
Alistair Dunbar
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Dec 9 2011: Are you implying that actual books give you less privacy? Would you not be worried about the massive amount of consumer data that would be made around what you purchase to read? If your country ever descends into some McCarthy era HUAC witch hunt on the left would you want to have people know you've read (or merely purchased) things by Marx?

And just something to note the person I referred to was a woman.

$100 or £100 as they cost in the U.K. is still a lot of money when unemployment is the west is around 8% and the rest of us are carrying round debt.
Mateus Terra
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Dec 9 2011: I thought a lot about it, mainly because I´ve been thinking about buying only ebooks from now on.
E-books are a lot easier ot carry, store, and so on, but I have one big concern: what if the company you bought the book from no longer exists, or the file format isn´t supported anymore?
It´s a big deal to lose an entire library for proprietary reasons, or even technological ones, and it´s a concern you don´t have with regular books.
On the other hand, most regular books will eventually be damaged and lost from usage, storage and so on.
After a lot of thought, I´ve decided to stick mainly to e-books and see what happens.
Aindreas Kugler
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Dec 8 2011: In 30 years ebooks could be outdated.
Alistair Dunbar
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Dec 8 2011: You quoted the wrong statistic in your response, you quoted the global population not those who have access to the internet. Those number are here "360,985,492" which you can look at yourself on the table in the web page. I think it's easy to see how low that figure is compared to the global population figures you cited (On a side note citing web pages for statistics is a big no-no as they have no peer review process).

The other limit to access is cost. While you may be able to get into an internet cafe' once in awhile or use a public internet service at a library that doesn't mean you have the disposable income to purchase a £100 'toy' and then you have to factor in, the cheap cost I recognise, buying books.

Currently buying brand new hardback copy of books is expensive and for the cost of 10 books you could have that ebook reader but if you make use of public library facilities, buy books second hand or borrow them from friends it would take you some time to reach that figure.

Also books have a history to them when bought second hand that digital media can never have. I purchased a copy of The Communist Manifesto a couple of years ago from a second hand book shop near my university campus. On the inside part of the cover was a name and a date. Bored one day I googled that name and the name of my university to discover that the person whom owned it was now an aide to a republican senator. From owning a piece of Marxist literature in Scotland to being part of a right wing insititution in the U.S. is quite interesting, no?
- Critical thinker and Proud :P
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  Dec 8 2011: Thank you for correcting my copying mistake :P
  
  Kindle for around $100 with space for thousands of books.
  
  ebooks are cheaper.
  You can get almost any book in the internet. TORRENT ( I know, you'll say it is stealing)
  
  You said it!! books keep the history of the reader. NO PRIVACY!! (your example: keep yourself in his position)
Thomas Jones 100+
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Dec 8 2011: QUOTE: "Will e-books replace traditional books"

I don't know.

I do know I prefer paper books ... by far.

I highlight, tab, and write in the books I read.

The only time an e-book might make sense for me is if I was reading fiction which I almost never do.
Puneet Manon
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Dec 8 2011: I completely agree with Mike and Alistair, i think physical books can never replace the digital book. Many a time you feel nostalgic looking at old book which you read when you were in 5th Grade, you can never get this feeling with digital books.
- Critical thinker and Proud :P
  - 0
  Dec 8 2011: Well, the future generations can oly judge if they feel it or not!
  
  We didn't use ebooks when we were young
Mike Euverman
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Dec 7 2011: I prefer traditional books. I find that I it is much easier for me to remember the information contained in traditional books, compared to e-books. The traditional is much more tangible and physical, but also has more ways to differentiate the information gathered from it. From where I was at the time of reading it, if there was any marks or folds on the page that had the information, or how many pages into the book I was when I read something interesting. While with e-books, the screen is always the same and makes it hard for me to remember things separately. Has a tendency to just bundle everything read in that entire day into one memory. Huge problem if I attempt to read multiple books or topics, as they all just get grouped together.
- Critical thinker and Proud :P
  - +1
  Dec 8 2011: I remember getting an exam question, which I didn't remember the answer to but I knew where the answer was in the book. (right page at the bottom) :P
  
  ---This maybe because when you read ebooks, you read to read and not to understand; whilst when you read from physical books you read to understand because you keep in your mind that you will be examined on it. If you view the ebook and traditional books in the same way, I think you may have another opinion.
- James van der Walt
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  Dec 9 2011: Liking the old has nothing to do with it being better. It's a personal preference due to the fact that people don't like change. We're all use to using paper but that doesn't make it better. An ebook does everything a traditional book does plus more. You can search, copy and past, highlight and make notes, share and no waiting for someone to finish the copy before giving it to you. Most importantly it's paper free which is good for the environment. Just on that fact alone it worth while switching.
  
  I'm getting myself a Kindle for xmas. Can't wait!
  - Mike Euverman
    
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    Dec 9 2011: This may be due to me having grown up in a logging community, but I don't view paper as being bad for the environment. The ink can easily be, but so too can the electronic components and battery contained inside of electronics and computers. You can also compare the process to produce the two. For me, paper comes out ahead in both regards. The trees used come from tree farms. Admittedly the chemical process used isn't that environmentally friendly, but neither is the mining and shipping process required for electronics. A tree can be replanted, a mineral can not be re-mined.
    - James van der Walt
      
      0
      
      Dec 9 2011: You're right. Manufacturing isn't good for the environment but once the reader is build you can read thousands of books on it while paper is needed for each book. The materials can also be recycled if they become obsolete.
      
      But it is a valid point you make about the logging communities. People will have no need for those trees any more... Less trees is never a good thing.
Alistair Dunbar
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Dec 7 2011: There will still be books in 30 years as I doubt all books currently made will have been digitised by that point. Only a small proportion of the worlds population currently has access to ebooks and I doubt there will be universal access to such technology in even 70 years as it would require electricity for consumer electronics the world over.

On a personal level I like actual books, space on shelves and the feeling of paper in my hands however I doubt that everyone shares that enjoyment.
- Critical thinker and Proud :P
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  Dec 8 2011: Thank you.But you said that a small proportion of the world's population currently have access to ebooks. Is this because they can't access them or they don't want to?Ebooks are widely spread in the internet.
  
  There are 360,985,492 people who have access to the internet. (INTERNET USAGE STATISTICS, 2011)You can buy ebooks, or get them free.
  
  Reference:INTERNET USAGE STATISTICS. (2011, October 6). Retrieved December 8, 2011, from Internet world stats: http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm

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