Nowadays, the physical book is dying. 

Practically everything is digital, including reading a short story. Is this a bad thing?

Some would say yes, that almost an entire generation is neglecting years of knowledge. And while yes, they’re right in a way, they’re also wrong.

The transition of physical books to digital is opening up a whole new world of possibilities to people—the transition it’s coming faster than most realize, and it’s for the better. 

Digital versions of books, from history to fiction, are dominating schools and homes alike. This is a good thing in many ways–it’s opening people up to larger worlds and letting people not only read things but process them better than a normal book can. 

Audiobooks are truly a delight for many. A problem with physical books is that they’re often challenging to pay attention to. It’s truly infuriating when you try to read something only to be either uninterested or unable to connect with the text itself.

Audiobooks allow those with impaired sight experience a book. People can multitask processing stories at their own pace. Plus, audiobooks are relatively cheaper than physical books. People are able to simply download whatever they want to listen to and move on with their day. 

Digital copies of books, while they do cost money, are less expensive than physical books and don’t take up as much physical space. At the end of the day, digital books are becoming mainstream enough to have a positive impact on people and ushering an improvement to reader interaction to the point that hardcore bookworms are adapting to Kindles, Audible, and other forms of digital literature. 

We’ve grown as people, and when that happens, the world and everything we do and consume grows as well. It’s important that we remember what came before what we have now as we expand from paper books to digital ones. Digital books are a positive development, and we should embrace it.