14 DAY TRIAL // Smartphones and tablets have been frequently blamed as being guilty of distracting people from more intellectual activities like reading. The traditional dogma has it that folks would rather play or chat, rather than read a book on their mobile device, but a new survey comes to prove that this theory is wrong.
USA Today in partnership with Bookish reveals that a significant part of the American population, especially those in the 18 to 40 age group, do read, and they do so on their devices.
Of those involved in the study, 46% claim that they own an eReader such as Amazon Kindle or a tablet which allows access to digital libraries like Apple’s iPad. That’s a big increase from the 18% reported in 2011 by another study.
35% of people who have acquired such a device also say that the purchase stimulated them to read more. The survey showed that adults who own a reading device tend to read an average of 18 books a year, as opposed to their deviceless brothers who only muster 11 books.
People are starting to build a taste for digital reading, it seems. 20% of total books sales in 2012 were owned to eBooks, with sales in the department increasing 42% year over year.