Quote:
Originally Posted by binaryhermit
I don't find that so strange, I mean, look at the resurgence of vinyl records in recent years.
Also, I think Japan also has a higher proportion of older people who are perhaps less tech savvy than some countries?
EDIT: Ironically, a lot of the benefits of eBooks would help older people more such as variable text size.
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Binaryhermit, I do not just use technology, I create it. I turn and scream to the technology, "Catch up, will you!". And, I buy paper. I use paper when it is proper and I use other media when proper. (And it may be relevant that I have been quite focused on writing software for reading, in the past and lately, and it is for my own use, and I use it and update it daily and frequently. It has lots of font tricks. Still. I do not eat on the Internet.)
The marriage of Japan with hi-tech, the cultural ease, was already there when those old people were young or mature. I am sure most of them are also capable of going electronic and enlarge their fonts, when they so wish or require. Since I mentioned the high literacy recorded in Japan, one can suspect, also for historical reasons, that it should be higher for the younger generations than for that of the eldest - illiteracy in Japan is in fact the lowest for the "late twenties" but it doubles approaching the "sixties" and triples after that, reaching around 20%-25% in the "eighties and over". So, the distribution of of reading habits in such aging population is probably mitigated - the "tech un-savy" for reasons of age were probably less concerned in the first place.
That parallel between paper and vinyl has some correct and telling aspects. You should not just consider the item (the design quality, the ownership, the experience), but also the experience of the vinyl records shops (the browsing and sieving, the collection etc.).