Jess Bozeman, Campus Carrier Opinions Editor

I’m a reader. One of the most relaxing things to me is just getting enough time off of school and other extracurricular activities to sit down and read a good story. I’ve had a special relationship with books for most of my life. Before I could even read them myself, my mom would read me the “Harry Potter” series by J.K. Rowling. In elementary school, I read abridged versions of classic novels like “The Three Musketeers” and “Sherlock Holmes.” When I got to high school, I would try to check out over the limit of books allowed out at one time, and the librarian let me because I was in there so much. Basically, what I’m saying is I’m a major book nerd and this trend has continued into college.

Fiction is especially my favorite, and I love the different formats a story can take. I read print novels, comic books and e-books. Yet, what I’ve found is that many look down on a story just because of what format it takes. I know people who hate e-readers not only for themselves as readers but as a technology at large.

I mainly got interested in e-readers simply because before I could get my license, I couldn’t always convince my dad to drive me to a book store at every given hour of the day. So, I started reading books on Amazon’s Kindle app. This was also before I even had an e-reader so I just used the app I could get on my computer. For me, it wasn’t so much about what form the story was in as much as it was about what the story was about and how fast I could get my hands on it.

I understand why many people hate e-readers for personal use. Some people just can’t get over the lack of pages and general feel of a print book.

That’s okay. I understand that some people simply prefer reading from print books and I’m not saying that they should have to change to a new technology. I do, however, think that it is not only incredibly elitist but also flat out rude to look down on others for how they read their stories.

Notice that I call hardbound books “print books” instead of “real books” or some similar term. That’s because both e-books and print books are “real books.” It’s just a matter of formatting. A story is a story, no matter how you are reading it.

A part of people’s antagonism towards e-readers comes from an instinct to value what they are familiar with. They see a new technology coming and are scared they will have to give up what is comfortable to them. They know what is familiar and don’t want to learn something new.

This is the same reason many senior citizens don’t want to learn how to use computer technology. In an article published by AARP on Aug. 29, 2011, about the elderly and a fear of technology, a researcher at the Center for Research and Education on Aging and Technology Enhancement, Neil Charness puts it like this: “If it takes you twice as long to learn something, why would you invest that time when you could be drawing on your crystallized intelligence — your already acquired knowledge.” In other words, why find out about something new?

However, in our technology driven age, this reasoning is simply not feasible. With new technology coming out every day, if you want to stay up to date, you have to at least keep up with the new technology coming out. In a way, adaptability is one of the most important traits we can cultivate in today’s society.

Another problem people have with e-books comes from what I believe to be a false dichotomy. They think with the advent of e-books, they will have to give up their print books.

An article published by The Wall Street Journal on Jan. 5, 2013, offers the possible alternative that e-books “rather than replacing printed books, will ultimately serve a role more like that of audio books—a complement to traditional reading, not a substitute.” Why is that? Because there are some things that e-books cannot replace. You can’t exactly have e-books filling your office shelves. They also can’t replace the feel of pages that many readers still enjoy.

E-books are not the perfect replacement that will do away with print books. They are separate formats that can be used for different purposes. By viewing this as e-readers vs. print books, a false dichotomy is created that is both unwanted and unnecessary. The unneeded conflict again results from the fear that something they love is being taking away. Since this is not the case, both this fear and this false conflict can be left on the wayside.

In other words, e-books are not a crime against humanity coming to burn your print novels. They are simply another way readers can enjoy a great story.