In one of Carr’s chapters he discusses e-books and e-readers,
such as the kindle or the Nook. Every major tablet designer, as well as phone designer,
incorporate some type of e-reader in their product. Amazon sells the Kindle so
that people be more likely to buy their books, Barnes and Noble encourages
people to buy their ‘new and improved’ Nook. Even phones have the ability to
download books and keep them in a virtual library. Everywhere you go you can
now have easy access to a book, but is this a good thing?
People are becoming more and more dependent on technology
as it advances and newer, more cool and efficient, products are released. E-readers
are pushing people to develop a dependency to electronics more quickly. They also,
as Carr mentions, can create a distraction for the reader, causing them to not
absorb information as well as they would if it was just them and an ‘old
fashioned' paper book. Since most tablets and e-readers have access to the
internet people are tempted to check their email, or check on their Facebook to
see the latest news amongst their friends. Since they are not focused solely on
the book they do not retain the information as well. The same goes for phones. People
are tempted to play games and check their Facebook’s, just like on a kindle,
but there is also the constant receiving and sending of text messages that accompany
most phones nowadays. When I read a book it is to relax. I don’t usually answer
my phone or go online. My mother is always raving about how easy it is to use
the e-reading app on her iPhone and how I should invest in it. the idea of
using my iPhone as a reader bothers me. I don’t want every page I read to be interrupted
by someone texting me, or by receiving a Facebook notification. It would defeat
the purpose of me sitting down and reading a book to relax and enjoy my time.
In my opinion, although e-readers can be very useful in
situations where you’re on the go, they will never replace paper books. Books are
reliable. You can put one down and come back to it years later and still find
the page you bookmarked. You can drop them, step on them, even get them wet,
and they will still, for the most part, function the way they are supposed to,
albeit a little messy. E-readers, like any electronic, has the potential to
malfunction. They run out of battery, you can accidently press the wrong key,
and sometimes they just plain stop working. You shouldn’t drop your e-reader,
or step on it, and getting it wet can really damage it. It’s possible to lose
all your e-books by just bumping it wrong. In my mind, e-readers are unreliable
and will never take the place of my paper books. I will continue to build by
own personal paper book library, not an e-library.
Jessica King
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