In today’s advancing technology the e-books are becoming popular day by day. There are certain pros and cons in using e-books for reading which will be discussed in this essay.
The popularity of e-books are increasing with time because of their convenience and accessibility. If a person wants to read a book they can buy it from online sellers and within few clicks the book will be available to the user. For instance, I had recently bought a digital copy of a novel which hardly took couple of minutes to purchase and within seconds I received the e-book over the email. Also, the cost of digital edition of a book that I purchased was 2 times cheaper than its physical copy.
However there are some downsides of usage of e-books from health and cultural perspective. E-books are read on lcd screens which emits blue rays that are harmful for the eyes. This can damage the retina of the eyes which can lead to blurry vision. Recent research of MIT had shown that 80% of person with more than 6 hours of screen time are using prescription power glasses. In contrast, the ones with screen time less than 6 hours are less like to have any retinal damage before 60 years of age. Another disadvantage of the growing digital culture is the deteriorating book fair culture. In book fairs, people meet up and share their views and ideas on the books they had already read due to which reader explore more genre of books which will eventually expand their knowledge of the books.
E-books due to its easy availability and competative pricing more and more people are preferring it nowadays. But it also causes several health issues and the book culture will be extinct if this trend increases. However, with limited usage and frequent visitation to book fairs/festivals e-books will be a useful medium for readers.