With the recent growth of technology, eBooks and eReaders have increased in popularity around the United States, although students at De Anza College appear to have mixed feelings about them.
A poll conducted by Harris New York in September of 2010 said that one in 10 Americans own and commonly use some sort of
eReader, and one in 10 Americans are predicted to buy one within the next year. At De Anza College in Cupertino, however, the numbers are
quite a bit higher. Of 20 students interviewed on Thursday, nine students said
they frequently used eReaders, while another eight claimed they would never use
an eReader, and three said they would in the future but currently don’t.
There are various reasons why students at De Anza choose to use eReaders over paper books. Four students chose to read eBooks due to the
convenience they offer. “Going to the bookstore is a hassle. It’s so much
easier just to download a book straight to my iPhone, and it saves me a lot of
time,” said Joanna Carettoni, a 32-year-old business management major. Price also appears to be a factor in the use of eReaders.
The three students who don’t currently use eReaders but would in the future all
said they would like to use eBooks for school textbooks, because it would save
money. “I don’t read a lot, so it’s stupid for me to buy an expensive book for
school that I’m only going to read once,” said Chela Pimental, 18, who is in
her first year at De Anza as a psychology major. Three students also preferred to use eReaders for
environmental reasons. “I have a Kindle and I use my phone to read on because I
read a lot, and it’s saving trees,” Kaitlyn Peterson, a 17-year-old high school
student taking a class at De Anza, said.
The students who choose to read paper books have their reasons, too. Some students say eBooks aren’t always cheaper. “It would be worth
it to buy books on my tablet or phone, but the used bookstore sells them for
cheaper than I could download them for. Downloaded books sell for the same
price as paper books, and you don’t even get anything tangible for it,” said
20-year-old history major Brandon Lee, who just finished his second year at De
Anza. And although students read on an eReader to help the environment, other students claim to not use eReaders for the same environmental reasons.
“The e-waste and production energy it takes to produce eReaders and eBooks does
more harm to the environment than printing paper books does in most cases. I
just buy my books recycled, or I go to the library,” said Jennifer Davis, a
19-year-old environmental studies major.
Ultimately, the choice lies with the reader. It seems the self-proclaimed bookworms read more paper books than digital. Of the students who don’t use eBooks, 87 percent claimed to read more than 10 books in a year, but only 11 percent of students who do use eBooks read that many. “Bookworms like our old-fashioned paper books,” Araceli Sanchez-Torrez, a 20-year-old De Anza student studying to be an EMT, said. “Reading from a screen isn’t authentic.”
