Digital devices versus printed materials: The

choices of college students and the reasons

Neng Chen*
University of California, Davis
Abstract
The research paper investigates the college students trend of using digital devices to
read instead of printed materials and the reasons for this trend. The project examines
the perspectives of two freshmen and uses a survey to learn about the reading habits
of 26 college students. This paper includes literature reviews from researches on the
peoples preference of digital devices. Also, the paper includes the content of
interview and the results received from survey. The significance of survey is to find
the existence of the trend and the possible reasons for the trend.
Keywords: reading habits; college students; printed materials; digital devices

Introduction
Nowadays, with the ever-accelerated updating science and technology, there
are a great deal of advanced digital devices in the consumer market. In
addition, the extensive use of the Internet has entirely reshaped individuals
lives. Now, some interesting facts show that people walking on the road keep
earbuds in their ears, people seating in the subways use their smartphones,
kids lying on the beds play tablets and smartphones. Briefly, a surging number
of people become closely related to digital devices. There is an interesting
fact in colleges that college students spend most of their free time using their
smartphones and computers to study or relax. However, college students
spent less time reading printed materials such as textbooks and magazines.
The focus of this research is whether there is a trend college students prefer
to use digital devices to read rather than use printed materials and which
factors cause this trend.
Background
With digital devices becoming widespread, various studies have begun to be
carried out about the use of ebooks, digital catalogs and different kinds of
devices. A vast number of studies have focused on the content of digital
resources and peoples preference to use digital devices to read.
In a study examining reading engagement (Troy & Carol, 2011), a comparison
was made between ebooks and traditional printed books in an elementary
classroom. The results showed that format was not as important as students
identification with setting, characters, and theme of the book. Students did,
however, indicate a preference for e-books when given the option of a wide
selection of titles and the freedom to choose their own e-book. In this study,
the author focused on whether using ebooks influenced students
comprehension of the content and whether the ebooks increase the
satisfaction of reading books. In another study surveying Sunshine Coast
library users (Ross, 2010), a conclusion was made which indicates that there

is a high level of interest in ebooks and eaudiobooks and also there is a

strong demand for technologies such as the iPhone, iPad and Amazons
Kindle. A recent survey conducted in the US indicates that 80% of consumers
are willing to purchase an e-reader at a maximum price of US $250. Three
professors in Yeditepe University make a survey concerns the preferences of
college students between ebooks and printed materials. (Gonca, Esra, &
Kerem, 2013) These professors get the data that approximately 68% of
university students stated that they read one book in a week and 62%
indicated that they are e-book readers. Ross made the conclusion that people
had a strong demand for digital devices and the three professors in Yeditepe
University got the result that university more than half the students have their
own e-book readers. These two researches both found out the devices
respondents have and their frequency to use digital devices. In the study of
three professors (Gonca, Esra, & Kerem, 2013), research findings have
manifested that the biggest advantage of e-book over printed resources is
easy access (68%). The second important advantage of e-book is ease of
archive (58%). In the study surveying Sunshine Coast library users (Ross,
2010), 78.77 percent of the respondents select More portable/easier for
traveling as the reason use ebooks. And 37.74 percent of respondents
choose the option No waiting time/instantaneous delivery. Similarly, they got
the same conclusion that the convenience and accessibility of the ebooks
were the main reasons people choose to use digital devices to read.
Compared to the research of Ross and the three professors, the research
done by Troy and Carol focused on whether doing digital reading influence
peoples comprehending of the reading materials since comprehending the
content is a prerequisite for using digital devices.
Methods
I. Interview
Participants: The students who were interviewed are Michael Allen and Ziyu
Xu. Michael is an American student and he is 18 years old. He is a freshman
in UC Davis this year. For Ziyu, he is a Chinese student and also a freshman
this year.
Materials: There were several questions for both of them to answer in order to
let them talk about their daily reading habits and find the reason for their
preference in choosing ways to read. The questions included open-ended
questions and close-ended questions. For close-ended questions, they were
asked to answer about how long they spend every day on using digital
devices, what kind of content they read on digital devices and whether using
do digital reading influence their comprehending. For open-ended questions,
they would need to think about the factors that make college students prefer
to use digital devices to read.
Procedure: These two students both accepted the face-to-face interview.
During the interviews, the answers to close-ended questions are quickly
recorded. For the open-ended question, the answers were recorded and
transcribed to text version.

II. Survey:
Participants: The participants who did survey were mainly students in UWP 1
class and some other students in UC Davis.
Materials: In the survey, the participants were asked about the questions that
how long they spend using digital devices to read and how long they spend
reading printed materials such as textbooks, magazines and newspapers
every day. They were also asked to select which kind of reading they prefer
between using digital devices and printed materials, what kinds of devices
they have and what kinds of devices they mainly use to read. Also, they were
asked the kinds of information they read on their digital devices. Finally, the
participants were given some options to select for the reason they prefer to do
digital reading.
Procedure: A list of questions was created in Google Forms and the link of
survey was sent to the instructor in UWP 1 class. The instructor then shared
this link with the students in the UWP 1 course. Google Forms tools were
used to analyze the data and converted the data to tables and diagrams.
Results
Interview:
The first interviewee is Michael, a freshman whose major is Mathematics. He
said that every day he spent about six hours using his computer or Kindle to
read and spent about one hour reading printed materials. Every day he spent
about three hours reading his digital textbooks on the website and one hour
browsing social networking websites such as Twitter and Facebook. He
indicated that using digital textbook was so efficient for him that he could use
the link of index to read the specific chapters and highlight the important
sentences easily. When asked whether using ebooks influence his
comprehension, he said reading by using digital devices does not cause
negative effect on his reading process. He pointed out nowadays it was
necessary for him to browse the websites like Twitter and Facebook since he
wanted to know his friends news feed in order to spur messages
transmission. Every day, Michael uses his Kindle to read novels since he
thought there were sufficient ebooks on Amazon and Kindle was a device
easy to carry with. For the question about the reasons that make college
students use digital devices to read, he believed the multiple functions of
using digital devices and the ample ebook resources were the main factors.
In the other interview, Ziyu said that he spent more than four hours using his
iPad to read books every day. Usually, he spent two hours reading his
textbooks on iPad and the other two hours reading news using news app.
Ziyu added that he hardly ever read printed materials after entering college
since his professors put the reading materials on the websites for them to
read online. Also, at the beginning of the quarter, the professor of Calculus
class provided his students a link to buy online textbook. After comparing it
with the print textbook, he decided to buy the digital textbook. He indicated

that there were two reasons. First, the price of the digital textbook is much
lower. Second, the digital textbook is so convenient that he is able to use in
different places after downloading the book on his iPad. He also conveyed
that the content on the screen doesnt influence his comprehension. In his
opinion, the high price of the print books and the convenience of the digital
devices were the main factors that make college students prefer to use digital
devices.
Survey:
Question 1: How long do you spend using digital devices to read (includes
reading electronic books and social networking information) every day?
Graph 1 Percentage of hours students spend doing digital reading

Graph 1 indicates that about 69.3% respondents spend more than 3 hours
using digital devices to read.
Question 2: How long do you spend reading printed material such as
textbook, magazine and newspapers every day?
Graph 2: Percentage of hours respondents spend reading printed materials

Graph 2 indicates that about 77% respondents spend less than 2 hours
reading printed materials every day.

Question 3: Which of the following ways do you use more to read every day?
Graph3: Percentage of respondents reading preference among two ways

Graph3 shows that 87.5% respondents prefer to use digital devices in daily
life, while only a few respondents choose to read printed materials.
Question4: Which of the following digital devices do you have? (Multiple
Choice)
Graph 4: Amount of respondents who own various IT devices

Graph 4 indicates more than 90% respondents have computers and

smartphones, and respondents all have their own devices.
Question 5: Which of the following digital devices do you use to read?
(Multiple Choice)
Graph 5: Amount of respondents who use various IT devices

Graph 5 indicates more than 80% respondents use computers and

smartphones to do digital reading.
Question 6: What kind of things do you read on digital devices? (Multiple
Choice)
Answer

Total

*Percentage

Textbooks

20

76.9%

Novels and other kinds of books

30.8%

Social networking information

23

88.5%

Newspapers and magazines

11

42.3%

Others

7.7%

The table below question 6 indicates that more than 70% respondents read
textbooks and social networking information on their digital devices and below
50% respondents use digital devices to read books, newspapers and
magazines.
7.Which of the following reasons that may make you prefer using digital
devices to read? (Multiple Choice)
Answer

Total

*Percentage

There are a great deal of electronic resources

13

50%

To see social networking information

19

73.1%

Digital devices are easy to use and carry

21

80.8%

To save resources such as ink and paper

19.2%

To get the latest news

34.6%

Other

7.7%

The table below question 7 shows the portability and usability of digital
devices is the main reason that lets respondents prefer to use them instead of
printed materials. In addition, the social networking information and the
sufficient electronic resources also make respondents choose to do digital
reading.
Discussion
According to the interview, Michael and Ziyu spent more time using digital
devices to read and agreed that they prefer to use digital devices to read
instead of printed materials. The qualitative findings indicated that students
devoted more time to using online resources such as reading or skimming
online E-books, Web searches, and online library databases compared to
traditional print books (Huang, S., Capps, M., Blacklock, J., & Garza, M. 2014)
In addition, the interview result show that the portability is the same reason
which makes them choose to use digital devices to read. However, they have
other different reasons for choosing digital devices to read. For Michael, the
effective functions of the digital devices and sufficient electronic resources are
the reasons. In contrast, Ziyu convinced that the relatively low price of
electronic book was also a factor. In the interview, the interviewees both
mentioned that reading same content by using the digital device and printed
materials do not make a difference in their understanding. Troy and Carol
(2011) indicated in their research that the format in which children read the
material was not an important as other factors which affected reading
engagement.
According to the survey, about 69.3% respondents spend more than 3 hours
using digital devices to read and about 77% respondents spend less than 2
hours reading printed materials every day. By comparing the time
respondents spend on digital devices and printed material, it is obvious that
the respondents prefer to do digital reading. In addition, more than 90%
respondents have computers and smartphones, and all respondents have
their own devices. Whats more, about 80 percent of students choose the
reason that digital devices are easy to use and carry as the main reason for
preferring to use digital devices. The results of this survey indicate that 78% of
respondents use e-resources because they were more portable, making
travelling easier. (Ross, 2010) Ross research and my research similarly
highlight the fact the portability of digital devices plays a key role in making
people to read by using digital devices. More books will be published
electronically, the number of e-reader devices will continue to grow, their
capabilities will increase, and prices will decrease. (Ross, 2010) In my survey,
about 50 percent of people think abundant electronic resources is a reason
that let them choose to do digital reading. However, according to my primary
research, there exists some new reasons which make college students prefer
to do digital reading. In the first interview, the interviewee pointed out it was
necessary for him to spend one hour browsing social networking websites
every day. In the survey, similarly, about 90 percent of the respondents read

social networking information on their digital devices. And more than 70

percent of the respondents thought their demand for social networking
working make them prefer using digital devices to read.
There are some limitations in my research. First, the survey done by students
in UC Davis is not enough to reflect the preference and thoughts of all college
students since the results may be different in other regions where the political
and economical conditions are different. Second, the interviews of two
students are not able to reflect other college students conditions and
opinions.
Conclusion
In summary, now there exists a trend that college students prefer to use digital
devices to read rather than use printed materials. One explanation for the
trend is that the digital devices are portable and easy to use for college
students. As students download their textbooks or other books on their digital
devices, it is efficient and convenient for them to read the books everywhere.
In contrast, it is quite difficult for them to carry the heavy textbooks with them.
The demand to deal with online information is also responsible for the trend.
The proliferation of the Internet serves a catalyst for increasing students
frequency of using digital devices. Nowadays, college students think it is
necessary for them to spend time using social networking website. Another
explanation for the trend is that almost college students have their own digital
devices and there are a great deal of electronic resources. On the one hand,
the rapid development of economy lays good foundations for students to gain
access to kinds of devices. Therefore, students are more likely to use digital
devices to do things like reading. On the other hand, the explosion of
electronic resources plays a key role in impelling students to do digital
reading.
References
Jones, T. J., & Brown, C. (2011). Reading engagement: a comparison between
ebooks and traditional print books in an elementary classroom. International Journal
Of Instruction, 4(2), 5-22.
Duncan, R. r. (2010). Ebooks and beyond: the challenge for public libraries. Aplis,
23(2), 44-55.
Gonca, C., Esra, S., & Kerem, T. (2013). E-Book versus Printed Materials:
Preferences of University Students. Contemporary Educational Technology, 4(2),
121-135.
Huang, S., Capps, M., Blacklock, J., & Garza, M. (2014). Reading Habits of College
Students in the United States. Reading Psychology, 35(5), 437-467
doi:10.1080/02702711.2012.739593