FYI@Librarian: No, millennials don't prefer e-book to physical books: Study

Wednesday, May 23, 2018

No, millennials don't prefer e-book to physical books: Study

No, millennials don't prefer e-book to physical books: Study

Although it seems that tech-savvy millennials would prefer getting their literature from convenient e-books, it turns out that this generation of readers would prefer actual books over e-readers — maybe even more than older readers — according to a study from the University of Arizona.
Likewise, the study also determined that across all adult age groups, consumers look on e-book ownership much differently than actual physical ownership of a book.

As researchers moderated, the groups revealed their feelings about ownership of physical books versus e-books. Some findings:

Because they don’t have full control of the e-book (i.e., they can’t copy a digital file to a number of devices), they don’t feel they have complete ownership of it.
Because they couldn’t share the e-books with their friends as well as being unable to gift the e-books or sell them, participants reported the items felt less valuable than physically possessing a book.
Because participants experienced physical books via senses such as touch, sound and smell, they reported feeling more emotionally attached to the physical books.
Because the process surrounding the purchase of e-books made it feel more like renting the book versus actually buying it, the participants reported feeling less ownership over the product.
Because physical books can be displayed, readers associate that with an expression of their identity to others. As such, they are more attached to the physical books.

Published Paper @

Cite this article as:

Helm, S.V., Ligon, V., Stovall, T. et al. Electron Markets (2018) 28: 177. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12525-018-0293-6