Ebooks are taking over as one of the most popular means of reading something.
Electronic books or what we know as ebooks are slowly rising over paper books as we can always see ebooks replacing paper books in institutions and other places.
SO WHY IS THAT?
There are a lot of questions in the minds of all readers such as what are the advantages and disadvantages of ebooks in education or perhaps what are the pros and cons of ebooks?
There may be other questions that are relating to ebooks such as, what are the pros and cons of e-readers, and are they good for the environment?
Do not worry because in this blog we are going to discuss in detail the pros and cons of ebooks.
EBOOKS – THE PROS AND CONS
Like anything out there in the market, even ebooks have prose and cons. As we are saying magazines, articles, textbooks, and everything else are being converted to ebooks, we simply have to ask the question, what are its pros and cons.
Let us start with the pros.
EBOOK PROS
PORTABILITY
This is probably one of the biggest impacts ebooks have over paper books and can certainly be called one of the biggest pros of ebooks.
Before we explain this, let us explain it with an example.
Remember the time when you had to carry multiple cassettes with you so as to take your songs everywhere?
Well now you can carry millions of songs in your pocket and you simply have to stay connected to the internet.
This is the same kind of impact ebooks have over paper books. The size difference simply doesn’t compare as ebooks can be stored in the thousands and even more on your mobile phone.
You can only carry a few books with you at all times and that too will be quite heavy.
You might be wondering if it will be comfortable for you to read these ebooks from any screen.
But you do not have to worry because there are ebook readers that have screens that feel exactly like paper.
ECO-FRIENDLY
If you are someone who is concerned about the environment then you will relate to this point quite well.
Imagine having to make paper by cutting down century-old trees simply to make paper leaflets or paper that will be thrown away or maybe any insignificant book.
You might be wondering yourself, “what a waste!” The creators of ebooks have also felt like this and that made them create ebooks.
While one might argue that even e-readers make electronic waste then you can simply choose to use ebooks on your smartphone. This means no additional electronic waste as a result of e-books.
This means that you are not cutting down trees in order to make paper and then applying non-environmentally friendly ink that will be used in this paper only to be dumped in landfills.
There is also the issue of the environmentally unethical means of creating paper because the process of creating paper also generates emissions.
The whole ordeal of ebooks is certainly more eco-friendly than traditional books.
EDUCATION
Education of any level requires a lot of books and that is also the case where ebooks play an important role.
The simplest reason why people prefer ebooks rather than paper books is that the manufacturing cost of ebooks is significantly low and ebooks can be copied for free even by a child.
This means that people who are not economically privileged enough can get hold of an ebook for free and that can be a great motivation for education.
People in developing countries are being benefited from ebooks quite a lot because of this.
There is also the other reason and that is you can incorporate multimedia books, audiobooks, and so many other forms of a medium into ebooks.
There is a huge potential because this will make education more interesting for children in school as well as for higher education.
Imagine learning about the Egyptian Empire. With the paper book, you can only include pictures but with ebooks, you can include links that can even have videos about the pyramids and much more.
EBOOK CONS
PIRACY
While we all can agree that e-books are good for sharing and distribution and we can also agree that this is quite important in education.
But for this very reason, this can be a curse for people who create and publish books for a profession.
There are a lot of people whose livelihood depends on the manufacture of books and writing books.
Ane-book can be replicated easily and shared without permission. This can be devastating to the people who have created the book and can mean their investment will not bring returns.
For us reading a book may seem like a hobby but for the author, writing a book is their livelihood and the threat of piracy can threaten their livelihood and discourage people from writing books.
RELIABILITY
Let us clear things out, in the beginning, it is not 2001 and we are not saying that ebooks are technologically unreliable.
Ebooks are technologically reliable and stable enough so that they can be used in serious academic applications.
We are saying that the reliability factor here is different.
In order to read a regular paper book, you simply need eyes and nothing more.
In order to read an ebook, you must have a compatible device. This device probably runs on batteries which you must keep charged.
This device must have the compatible software required to read the ebook. This device can malfunction, discharge, and run into a variety of issues. A paper book will stay a paper book if cared for properly and kept dry and out of fire or any bad environments.
We hope you have been able to make you understand the unreliability factor of paper books versus ebooks.
IN-HAND FEEL
Whenever we have to ask an avid reader if they support the whole ebook movement or even if they read ebooks.
Many of them say that they do not and upon further questioning, they say that they don’t get that same feel with e-books that they get with a regular book.
This point may be difficult to understand for most people but what they mean by this is that they value the book so much that they cannot appreciate ebooks.
To these people, books are a priceless possession that they can hold and admire and take care of. A book holds great value to these people and for good reason.
To these people, e-books dilute the meaning of what it’s like to own and read a paper book, although most of them understand the importance of ebooks.
Just that they don’t personally subscribe to it.
These were a few of the pros and cons of ebooks. If you are someone who is an author and supports the whole ebook movement then we are here to help you. We are Orange Publishers; one of the best book publishers in India and we like to support every new author by assisting them throughout the publishing process. Be it a traditional paper book or an ebook, we are always there to help you with the best publishing technologies in the publishing world. We will make sure to publish your books on whichever platform you want and we will make sure you have all the creative decisions in control and every creative right there is during the publication process. We will also take care of the legal side such as doing the copyright etc. Come visit us today.
