Will Babies Born Today Ever Read Anything In Print?

It’s something to think about isn’t it.

I love books, the smell of a book is something in itself and only another true book lover will appreciate that sense of getting lost in a page turning really good book, yet I have to admit  I rarely read anything in print nowadays. (What an incredibly sad admission to make).

My Ipad/Iphone and Kindle are the mainstays of my life. I even read the news online though I do make a point of buying our local weekly newspaper in print form. It’s just so much easier to shove my kindle in my bag whenever I’m going away with the hundreds of books on there I can choose from than a dog-eared paperback that’s going to take up a lot more room.

it’s also a part of the I want it now culture. I remember I was on a train travelling to London a few months ago. I got chatting to a lady fellow passenger and we started discussing diets. She told me about this great one she’d read about, and five minutes later, I’d downloaded the book to my Ipad so I could read about it. (I probably would never have bothered if I’d had to wait to buy the print version). So I have to admit, I’m as bad as anyone else in contributing to the demise of the printed word on paper.

Dr. Jeffery Cole, a research professor and director of the Center for the Digital Future, had this to say at a conference back in 2012 “About 30 years ago, we saw that teenagers didn’t read newspapers until they got into their 20s and 30s. “Today teenagers don’t read newspapers and the evidence is clear they never will. Teenagers today around the world are more interested in news than any teenage generation in the last 60 years. They’re just not going to newspapers, but online to get their information.”

Phil Wiser, chief technology officer for the Hearst Corporation said back in 2011 was the first time the amount of time online equaled or exceeded the amount of time spent on television. http://www.foliomag.com/2012/amc-day-2-reality-sets-around-print-challenges#.UIb9AG-_GSp

Will we ever lose the printed word? It will probably be a number of years yet, but my suspicion is yes we will eventually. How weird to think that books will probably become museum pieces eventually…