WHY DO YOUNG READERS PREFER PRINT TO EBOOKS?.

My generation is umbilically linked to their mobiles and laptops - so why are we so resistant to ebooks?

A recent survey has suggested that 62% of 16- to 24-year-olds prefer reading printed books to ebooks on an e-reading device.

The statistic is interesting to me, as it reflects the opinions of people in my own age group – and let's face it, we're as reliant on mobile phones and laptops as we are on oxygen and water.

Over half of those who preferred print said they "like to hold the product" that they are reading. It turns out (surprise, surprise) that you do actually have to hold an e-reader to use it, but to avoid becoming a pedant of phrasing: I do understand what this is really saying. We have a strong emotional attachment to the physical book, as demonstrated by the qualitative comments made by participants, such as "I like the smell" and "I want full bookshelves".

But surely the experiences which surround the experience of reading shouldn't be prioritised above … well, reading a book. I feel the need to challenge my own preference for printed books, because whenever I begin to think about why I think I enjoy them more than ebooks, I can't give a decent answer. If I can't support my own vague opinions that I like the sensation of reading a physical book with a concrete reason, how can I claim that they're superior? If ebooks contains the same content, aren't they basically the same thing?

What I find interesting is that we seem to dismiss the fact that printing is a technology with a long history of development. In his book 2001 book Paper Machine, Jacques Derrida described the transition his generation had seen from the pen, to the introduction of the typewriter, the electronic typewriter and the computer, noting that "the voyage continues".

He makes a convincing case. The ebook, to me, is just a phase in the evolution of reading technologies – they're no less "natural" than printed books, which just feel that way because they have been around so long (when did you last see a wild printing press roaming the moors?).

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Considering that millions of people read and generate billions of words per day on computers across the world, why can't we come to terms with ebooks? We read the news, our mail, advertisements, text messages and recipes in a digital format on a daily basis. When it comes to books, we balk.

Perhaps it's the initial investment that is off-putting? An outlay of between £69 and £400 for a Kindle is a lot if you're eking out a student loan, or if you're one of Europe's 24.4% of young unemployed, even though sites like Project Gutenberg can fill it several times over with free books.

Some participants in the study thought that ebooks were priced too high, and I can sympathise with that. If you buy Alex Ferguson's autobiography in hardback for £12 on Amazon, you can share it with as many friends as you like; get it on Kindle edition - for just £2.51 less - and you'd have to lend your ereader out in order for anyone else to see it.

Source: Matthew Brady, 2013, "Why do young readers prefer print to ebooks?", http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2013/dec/04/ebooks-amazon (accessed on26th Dec 2014)