Nowadays, more and more people prefer purchasing and reading books digitally to traditional paper books. What are the reasons for this trend? Is it a positive or negative development?

It is common these days that people have a tendency to buy e-books instead of tangible ones. There are several reasons for this phenomenon, and I do believe that this innovation has its pros and cons. People are no longer purchase traditional books because of those undeniable benefits. One of the major causes can be the development in the internet age which leads people to spend their time with the computer screen more frequently than the previous. That is to say, reading such digital books may be easier and more capable for them as they can read and access a diversity of books whenever they need. Another reason can be financial savings since intangible books, in fact, cost less money than paper ones. For example, there are many online libraries containing a lot of books in different types from psychology to literature which are totally free for everyone. Though digital books have a significant role in today's society, this development has its weaknesses as well. First, reading such ebooks can be detrimental to people’ eyes because they require us to stare at a screen for a long time and thus they may cause eye strain and other eye-related problems. Secondly, in order to read these books, people need a compatible device with a power supply and perhaps an internet connection. In other words, if it runs out of battery or in an area where internet connectivity is not available, we will not be able to read. In conclusion, it seems to me that e-book is still a good choice for people who want to attain knowledge although it has some drawbacks in some aspects.