Quote:
Originally Posted by SouthernSun
This implies that the younger generation are either Internet dependent, or don't have Internet access at all... Neither of which are accurate, OR related to what I've observed as a preference for paper books.
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I think it's accurate. Many people, including me, would be lost in this "information is everything"-world without the internet. Using the internet, I can find stuff in a matter of seconds, which would take me hours, days, or maybe even weeks when finding out the same stuff without using the internet. Maybe it wouldn't even be possible.
20 years ago, if I wanted a book, I would go to our local book store. Normally, they wouldn't have it and needed to order it, causing me to wait three weeks. A paperback book of a new release would cost around fl. 29.95 If we had had euro's back then, it would've been € 13.50.
10 years ago, if I wanted a book, I'd go to an online retailer (finding the cheapest in the process) that was in the Netherlands, and buy the book from the cheapest one, or the one that had it in stock. If it wasn't in stock, I'd wait a week. The price of a new release paperback would be around € 9.95, despite 10 years of inflation.
Nowadays, if I want a book, I find an online EPUB-seller *anywhere in the world*, and I download the book immediately. It's *always* in stock, and almost always cheaper than the paper book, especially if I buy in a US-located store and pay in dollars. I often buy new books for less than $7, which is €5.32 at the time of writing.
So in 20 years time, the waiting time to be reading my book has fallen from 20 days to about 30 seconds, and the book is more than 2,5 times cheaper, all because of online stores.
And I don't even have to get off this chair to be reading a new book if I wanted to.
While I said that replacing every "off-line" store and all stuff with online stores and digital stuff may not be good an may be making the world less rich and interesting, I don't think I could go back 20 years in time... so yes, I, and I think most others of my generation, are quite dependant on the internet if it really comes down to it.