E-MAGINE THE FUTURE E-READERS VERSUS BOOKS. Written by ALYSSA DAVIS Imagine twenty years from now: the e-Reader takes over. Having the paper delivered to front doors is a thing of the past; libraries are comparable to museums with books more like artifacts than actual products with a purpose and one would be fooled if they ever see a kid lugging around a heavy backpack overstuffed with textbooks. These premonitions aren’t far off as universities have already begun replacing textbooks with the Kindle, making it not only convenient but an affordable alternative to print material. Most of us are aware of the hype surrounding e-Readers and realize that they’re part of a technological development that forgoes the nuisance of carrying books. However, our precious e-Readers are producing more than weightless novels. They hold the power to either have a positive impact on the eco-system as a sustainable method of reading or, on the contrary, let loose massive electronic waste and intrusive consumer tracking systems. Fortunately, this power lies in reach of the user. Read on to find out how one can responsibly use an e-Reader in a sustainable fashion and lessen the potential negative implications. READERS MAKE THE SHIFT Statistics show that readers are all aboard the e-book train. Amazon announced Amazon.com customers are now purchasing more books for the Kindle than print books—including hardcover and paperback—combined. Since last year, for example, for every 100 print books that were sold on Amazon.com, the site sold 105 Kindle e-books. The numbers have only grown from there. For a better visual understanding, check out the following graph (right) that forecasts e-books as a percentage of total books sold (source: David Houle) which reveals how dramatically the print versus e-Reader mentality will shift over the next decade. ADOPTION OF E-READERS INTO SOCIETY AND SCHOOLS Anyone who has ever bought a college book knows that they are excessively 6
MAY 2012
www.papercutmag.com
overpriced. New editions are published almost every year, leaving a student’s wallet dry, as they maybe get $30 back for returning over $500 worth of textbooks. On the second hand, numerous college students get by in several courses with study groups, professors’ lectures and lecture notes while textbooks are left behind. For many it’s not that they don’t want to buy textbooks, it’s the expensive price tag that breaks the deal. If only there was an inexpensive alternative. Low and behold, the e-book! “They’re more convenient, interactive and so much better for the environment than paper books. I don’t see why we should buy paperbacks ever again,” says Connor Battin, an English major from West Virginia University. He describes how a college friend’s biology textbook was made more interactive by being put on the Internet. “It [is] much better for the students to learn from and it [is] a lot cheaper. Instead of paying $140 for a biology book, students [are] paying $50.” Being able to purchase books for the e-Reader would not only cut the cost but also the weight. College students have crazy schedules including back-to-back classes or part-time jobs in between. Who has time to make multiple trips back to the dorm room to switch out books? From my own college experience, I recall having to pick and choose which books are most important—that’s not the way it should be. Carrying a whole load of textbooks anywhere can 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20%
2012 2015
2020
2025
2030
The predicted forecast of e-books as a percentage of total books sold. (source: David Houle)
be possible and still weigh only 1-1/2 pounds with an e-Reader. MARKET RESEARCH: FRIEND OR FOE? e-Readers will also eventually have a huge impact on market research. Most e-Readers, like Amazon’s Kindle, have an antenna that allows users to instantly download new books. However, this technology also makes it possible for the device to transmit information back to the manufacturer. This can be considered a huge benefit among publishing companies who will have the ability to track how quickly readers progress through different chapters, when they skip pages and when they abandon a book—information that has never been accessible before. This information can possibly be helpful in writer’s workshops. The possibility of tracking a reader’s progress through various sections of a manuscript may be effective for use in early drafts of a story or novel. Instead of solely relying on a reader’s criticism and notes, imagine as a writer being able to answer impossible questions such as, “On which page did your readers decide to put your story away?” Yet, this breakthrough research is sure to uncover privacy issues among consumers. Are book lovers ready to have their reading tracked? “They know how fast you read because you have to click to turn the page,” says Cindy Cohn, legal director at the nonprofit Electronic Frontier Foundation. “It knows if you skip to the end to read how it turns out.” And it’s not just what pages you read, it may also monitor where you read them. “Kindles, iPads and other e-Readers have geo-location abilities; using GPS or data from Wi-Fi and cell phone towers. It wouldn’t be difficult for the devices to track their own locations in the physical world,” says Martin Kaste of NPR. It’s hard to find out what kind of data the e-Readers are sending. Most e-book companies refer all questions about this to their posted privacy policies which can be difficult to interpret. One may think this kind of page-view tracking seems innocuous, but if the company keeps