Sarah Perez wrote today: "When Amazon introduced their e-book reader, the Kindle, Steve Jobs made a strong proclamation regarding the book industry that received a lot of attention: "It doesn't matter how good or bad the product is, the fact is that people don't read anymore [...]" As it turns out, he was only half-right. People read, even those in the younger generation, they just prefer to do it online." Backing that sentiment up was a comment by Sean Mulholland, who said that he's a good example of a digital native: "I hardly ever read books. Probably only about one or two a year, and even then they're typically non-fiction as opposed to 'literature'."
Congratulations Sean, you've won a $30 Amazon voucher - courtesy of our competition sponsors AdaptiveBlue and their Netflix Queue Widget.
Here's Sean's full comment:
"My 'gut feeling' thoughts exactly...good to hear them supported with data!
I'm a great example of the digital native (though I haven't been a teen for some time, I was an early net adopter in the early 90's when I actually was a teen). Like you mentioned, I hardly ever read books. Probably only about one or two a year, and even then they're typically non-fiction as opposed to 'literature'. Magazines? Only during flights.
Despite that, I scored a perfect 6/6 GMAT writing score, and my while I forget the specific verbal vs. quantitative, my overall was in the 97th percentile.
Granted, one could argue I'm missing out on the cultural value associated with great literary works, however because I tend to lean toward heavier reading (quality news, science, etc) I don't think I'm missing out too much with regards to developing or maintaining my reading ability. And because of blogs, forums, and email, I probably write several dozen pages worth of text each week, which is probably more than many members of previous generations can claim!"
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My son is on his high school Academic Bowl team, and I attended his recent state meet (in Georgia). I was impressed by the brains and knowledge on display, but stunned by one gaping hole in the students' expertise: no one, on any of the teams, was able to answer questions about literature. If this group isn't reading fiction then the culture is definitely changing.
Posted by: David Noah | March 18, 2008 5:27 AMIt saddens me when people tell me that "people don't read books" anymore. To me reading is one of life's true pleasures . I don't agree with people who say that no one will read books in years to come. As I read recently, there's always a big new thing, but the old big new thing doesn't really go away!
Posted by: Alex Moore | March 18, 2008 8:15 AMSarah was wrong and so is your winner - reading email and blogs is fine, but reading a few paragraphs here and there is NOT the same as reading a book.
Books, online or off, fiction or not, engage your mind in a very different way than short pieces of text. Almost without realizing it, your mind starts building a world out of the words on a page. Arguments can be developed with some complexity over dozens of pages and examined from multiple points of view.
The point isn't online versus offline, nor is it the raw number of words someone reads. The point is that well written books are a fundamentally different experience than reading email about some meeting at work or your friends' Facebook updates. There's certainly value in both (well, maybe not the meeting email... ) but they're different... one can't substitute for the other.
Posted by: rick gregory | March 18, 2008 10:31 AM