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Silver Surfers Driving Digital Reading

By April 16, 2016eReaders, Reading Habits

While Paper Books are ‘Cool for Kids’

We hear a lot on our Facebook page about the seemingly younger generation and their dependence on digital devices, but according to research carried out for eBook retailer Kobo, it’s silver surfers who are driving the digital reading revolution. And in other news, and another study we find that youngsters aren’t only outreading older people but they are buying more paper books too.

Kobo have 28 million active readers, that’s a lot of people, but of that group the most active are women over 45. Kobo said they expected this to be true, but it’s nice to see the confirmation after the research. In fact this is no small percentage either, 77% of Kobo’s active customers are women aged 45 or over, and the largest single group (30%) is women aged 55 to 64! And while this may smash some stereotypes about ‘kids today’, it certainly comes as no surprise to us.

There are so many advantages to digital reading, larger font, being able to download even if you’re housebound, the lightness of a device over a heavy book, the benefits really do go on and on.

On the flip side, another interesting study in America, but the Pew research centre has shown that Millennials are out reading the older generation, especially when it comes to print books. We’re a whole generation into the 2000s now, 16 years and this study has shown that while we assume that youngsters are on Instagram and browsing the Internet, they’re actually out reading adults by two to one.

This Pew Study also showed that Millennials are also buying more books than borrowing or eReading, and we can’t help but think the Internet has a little to do with this. After all, youngsters love showing off, library pictures are really cool, books are seen as slightly old school, and ergo books and libraries are cool again! I’m taking a bit of credit for that one!

So next time you’re out there judging the kids for being overly techy, and judging the older generation for all being Luddites, you may just be mistaken.



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