Study: E-books Attract Internet-Savvy, Educated

[mrscoach]

Originally Posted by Donnageddon

Dear GAWD! Have I misunderstood and answered that question incorrectly all these years?

Sorry, I had to put that in. My son came up with that one day and had me rolling on the floor. Yes, he is eighteen, but has a strange sense of humor. (That is also him playing Teddy in "Arsenic and Old Lace" last year in my avatar)

[robkat]

Forgive my ignorance, but how can you have over 100%?
100% is all,everyone or everything!!

[slayda]

Originally Posted by Donnageddon

Dear GAWD! Have I misunderstood and answered that question incorrectly all these years?

Depends on how "low down" you are.


And remember; "98% of all statistics are made up."

[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by robkat

Forgive my ignorance, but how can you have over 100%?
100% is all,everyone or everything!!

The % isn't "how many people who have ebook readers have [trait x]." It's, "how much more likely than average are people-who-have-ebook-readers to have [trait x]."

So... if the average person has a 10% chance of having used wifi in the last month, ebook-reader owners have a 29.9% chance of having used wifi in the last month. If the average person has a 20% chance of using wifi in the last month, ebook-device owners have a 59.8% chance of having used it.

Not knowing the baseline for each makes this propaganda, not news.

[Amalthia]

Originally Posted by desertgrandma

However, I'm average, just average. High school education, blue collar jobs all my life, no true 'vocation'. I've learned thru the kindness of strangers (thanks, MobileRead!) and by my mistakes.....

!

DG, my grandmother also only had a high school education but she's very well read and intellegent. I think many people within a certain age range only have a high school degree because college wasn't pushed heavily until the 70s? with all the vets getting the GI Bill.

I also think at one point High School was the equivalent of what a college degree is today.

College does not necessarily equal intellegence because really college is easy, you just have to do the work and show up for class. Oh and you have to have money.

[Latinandgreek]

Originally Posted by Amalthia

DG, my grandmother also only had a high school education but she's very well read and intellegent. I think many people within a certain age range only have a high school degree because college wasn't pushed heavily until the 70s? with all the vets getting the GI Bill.

I also think at one point High School was the equivalent of what a college degree is today.

College does not necessarily equal intellegence because really college is easy, you just have to do the work and show up for class. Oh and you have to have money.

I agree with you regarding the whole education does not equal intelligence. People equating intelligence with education is one of my pet peeves. My grandmother was illiterate and never attended school, but she was still one of the most intelligent women I have ever met. Several of her grandchildren hold doctorates, and Lord knows no-one in our family had any money to speak of, so money isn't necessarily a prerequisite for an education, I disagree with you there. My other grandmother completed only grade 6, but was well read, intelligent, and could speak several foreign languages fluently. Neither my father nor my mother had the opportunity to attend high school, but with hard work have managed to raise their children well. I can't say that my brother and I were lacking for anything growing up, and we are both highly educated (if not successful; my brother is successful, I'm sort of NOT. Financially, that is! That's fine with me, though!). In the course of my studies I have met (sorry, but it's true) people dumb as posts who somehow managed to make it to graduate school through ambition and perseverance, but lacking in the knowledge that (I would have thought) would be expected at that level of education, so yes, I really don't believe that people attain degrees based on necessarily intelligence. I believe that motivation, finance / family life play a much larger role in that sort of thing.

Anyway, for the record, I only fit into one of the e-book reader categories, maybe two, I'm not sure what they mean by HEAVY internet use.

[calvin-c]

Originally Posted by desertgrandma

Really? Not surprising?

I am not in a single category.

"Clearly, users of the current generation of e-readers are highly educated, upscale, and Internet savvy"


A huge raspberry here. I am none of the above.

This article perpetuates the idea that the average person isnt intelligent enough to use them, nor could they afford them if they were.

Its a book reader, people, not rocket science! All thats needed is a desire to read.

Period.

Of course I remember reading, somewhere (can't find it now) that the 'average' US adult barely reads anymore. (I believe this was talking about leisure reading, not 'work' reading. Yes, we're literate, but apparently so addicted to TV/movies/games that the idea of settling down with a book is foreign to a majority of 'us'.)

A better survey would be to compare ebook readers with the average reader. (First, define 'reader'.)

[omk3]

Ah, the joys of sloppy statistics!

I had an interesting discussion (that turned to argument that turned to shouting) about how trustworthy statistics are - even the best of them, but I don't care to repeat it.

Such surveys are fun to read and contradict though, I give them that!