Is Kindle most attractive to older readers?

[The Hooded Claw]

http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2011/11/30/when-kindle-goes-bad/

A throwaway line in the above article mentioned his idea that ebooks may not be as attractive to young readers as older ones. I have been surprised by the prevalence of mature readers on KB, so I am gonna investigate this, my curiosity is aroused.

As for the main point of the article, this guy clearly needs to call Kindle CS!

[Kevinsix]

The Kindle is certainly attractive to old readers -- I am one myself. Equally the Kindle is attractive to readers of all ages - it is like asking "Is a Vacuum Cleaner mostly attractive to older readers" . It's a highly functional device which is a boon to all...

[slkissinger]

My opinion... If you asked a teen or pre-teen "if I spend ~$100 on a device for you, what do you want?".  Would a kindle (or other e-reader) be their first choice? likely not.  They'll ask for one of the music players or something similar.

But out of all my nieces and nephews, of the ones who have been gifted with a Kindle (from me, or Grandma/Grandpa, or someone else), they are pretty much attached at the hip to them.  Even the kids that prior to getting a kindle reading was something "school makes them do".

[tinytoy]

His article seems to be an off the cuff opinion based on an unfortunate experience with his Kindle.  He says that younger readers may not find the Kindle tempting, but again this is his opinion.  He doesn't say what lead him to come to this conclusion, whether he's asked young readers or made some sort of observation.  

There are a few statements in his article that caused me to roll my eyes (and pretty much discredit his entire writeup), including this one:

"To navigate around in a book you must click-click-click through multiple screens. (In a paper-and-binding book, you can flip to where you want to go in about one-tenth the time.)"

Say what?  In what universe is it 1/10 faster to turn a physical book page than to click-forward page turn on a Kindle?  If there were a City of Whackadoo D. G. Myers would be the mayor.

[tinytoy]

And when we link to his "worried" back story we find this:

"What happens when Amazon ceases to support the version of the Kindle that you own? Unlike the codex, an ebook requires a piece of hardware—a machine—to be accessible. Isn’t it entirely possible that the machines will be replaced and the electronic data will have to be bought all over again, and again? And that some texts will no longer be available in the new format?"

City of Whackadoo I say.

[slkissinger]

I was going to comment, but I dislike signing up to web sites w/a username and password just to do a rebuttal.  But basically... he should be told to "just come to Kindleboards, and get educated". 

[Steve Z]

Heeeeyyyyyyy....  I resemble that remark!!!   

I'm....old enough for AARP & LOVE my Kindle touch!!

[patrickt]

One prerequisite for enjoying a Kindle is...to read. Not to play games or watch movies or surf the net but simply and elegantly...read. I have always read but the older I get the more time I have for reading.

[Kathy]

I'm also in the older group but all of my daughters are in their 30s and love their Kindles as well. Several of my grandchildren have asked for one.

[arshield]

Yeah, the fact that some older people like kindle does not mean it is a device for older people.  I have friends kids that read their kindles and they are 10-13.   That doesn't mean that kindle primarily are for tweens, it just means that in my experience I know tweens that use a kindle.

[Hoosiermama]

I am in that older group. I have the Touch and Fire. My eldest son is a widower with an almost-three-year-old. He mentioned that he wanted to start reading after the little guy goes to bed. I gave him my K2, and he's called me numerous times to tell me he LOVES it. He said he'd been getting bored at night and thought he might pick up reading. Mind you, this is a guy who just doesn't read a lot...never found much enjoyment in it, but he's discovering that you can "get away" by reading. My younger son is getting a Fire for Christmas.

[tinytoy]

One prerequisite for enjoying a Kindle is...to read. Not to play games or watch movies or surf the net but simply and elegantly...read. I have always read but the older I get the more time I have for reading.

Exactly.  If a "young person" is not interested in owning a Kindle my guess is it's because the "young person" doesn't read much, not because he or she is anti-ebook. 

[Jeff]

Love of reading is the key. My grandson, who has always been an avid reader, was enamored with my Kindle. I gave it to him and bought another for myself. He reads with it constantly. My other grandchildren, who read occasionally, have no interested in a Kindle.

[mooshie78]

I'd think so.

I'd think the younger crowd (i.e. even younger than me--I'm 33) would be more into tablets that they could read on, but also do a lot of other stuff.

I've yet to see any students around my college campus with a Kindle or other e-ink reader.  But there are a lot with iPads as they can do call kinds of stuff on them both for personal use and school use (text books, have some that type notes in class on them etc.).

I'm kind of in the middle ground.  I have both a Kindle 3 and an iPad 2, as well as an iPhone 4s.  The iPad and iPhone get used the most as I'm not a super avid leisure reader and can do a lot more work and play things on those devices than my Kindle.  But when it comes time for reading a novel, I still prefer the Kindle as it's smaller and lighter, don't have to worry about the battery life or the backlight maybe making it harder to fall asleep (most of my leisure reading is in bed) etc.


Now I'm just talking about people in general, not avid readers specifically.  I'd think both young and old avid readers would be drawn to devices like the Kindle or Nook.  My comments are more just along the lines of reading not being as popular among younger generations as older ones as they're more sucked into the internet, social networking, video games etc.  I'd lump myself in that as well.  I read a lot more than most of my friends around my age and younger, but I spend more time goofing online, playing video games, watching movies etc. than I do reading for sure (not counting work-related reading anyway).

[CaroleC]

When I was young, I carried 50 lbs of books in my backpack and it was a breeze. Now that I am older (63), even one book seems heavy and my K3 is perfect.

When I was young, my vision was great and I didn't have to stare at a paper page to figure out what the words were. Now that I am older, the glare-free text on my K3 is perfect and I can make the letters as big as I like.

When I was young, I loved going to the bookstore to choose a new book. Now that I am older, I love being able to download some samples, decide which book I want, and order it online, all from the comfort of my home.

Guess that about covers it, for me!

[ElaineOK]

I have a young nephew who is a reader.  He isn't all that interested in a Kindle at this point.  He doesn't mind carrying books.  He is still in school, so he doesn't travel much.  He likes the look and feeling of owning a wall full of books -- that he has never had to pack and move and for which he has never run out of space.  He has 20/20 vision and can't imagine his arms getting too short.  Oh, and he loves trolling used book stores for deals.

That being said, if I gave him a Kindle anyway, I think he would be hooked instantly. 

Elaine
Norman, OK

[Linjeakel]

When I was young, I carried 50 lbs of books in my backpack and it was a breeze. Now that I am older (63), even one book seems heavy and my K3 is perfect.

When I was young, my vision was great and I didn't have to stare at a paper page to figure out what the words were. Now that I am older, the glare-free text on my K3 is perfect and I can make the letters as big as I like.

When I was young, I loved going to the bookstore to choose a new book. Now that I am older, I love being able to download some samples, decide which book I want, and order it online, all from the comfort of my home.

Guess that about covers it, for me!

^^^^ This!

[geniebeanie]

I am 58 years young and love both of my kindles.

[apocalypse*meow]

I'd agree that Kindles are most attractive to readers, period. I don't know many other avid readers excepting myself- and I've been a reader my entire life. I know only one other Kindle owner, and, surprise, she's the only other person I know who owns a Kindle.

I'm 34 BTW.

[Ann in Arlington]

Kindle owners are all ages.  I can think of, off the top of my head, 6 people I personally know who have one (not counting KB'ers) who are: 22, 25, 28, 48, 55, 84.  That's an average age of 43 or so, but there's certainly a bigger cluster of data points under 30 than over 30.  It's not, of course, a statistically valid sample.

[sanshoku]

I think they will love kindle, if they try kindle and take some time to get used to.

[mooshie78]

Found this blurb about leisure reading by age in a report from the 2010 American Time Use Survey.

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/atus.nr0.htm

"   --Time spent reading for personal interest and playing games or using a
     computer for leisure varied greatly by age. Individuals age 75 and over
     averaged 1.1 hours of reading per weekend day and 18 minutes playing
     games or using a computer for leisure. Conversely, individuals ages 15
     to 19 read for an average of 6 minutes per weekend day while spending
     1.1 hours playing games or using a computer for leisure. (See table 11.)"


And here's the age breakdown from the table references (amounts are average hours reading per weekend day/holiday--it has weekday numbers too, they're just a tad lower for each age group).

15-19: .10
20-24: .16
25-34: .15
35-44: .19
45-54: .27
55-64: .43
65-74: .72
75+:    1.14


So there's some hard data showing what we all know--that avid readership is lower among the early 30's and under crowd and increases pretty linearly across age brackets.  Pretty interesting that the turning point is my generation (I'm 33 as noted earlier).  But I guess it makes since as that was the generation where video games and the internet etc. really started to hit the mainstream and eat up more of our free time.

Just backs up what we've all said.  The Kindle appeals to readers period.  Avid readers are just a demographic that skews older.

[Ann in Arlington]

I think the main reason older people read more is they have more time. . . .kids, teens, and young adults are busy with school - not to mention tons of after school activities; then they're out of school but time is spent getting a career going and having kids of their own. . .at which point they're back to the after school activities again!    I can totally see how a person might get to their 50's before they are able to make as much time to read as they'd like. . . .'bout the time the kids can drive themselves to where they want to go. . . .

[mooshie78]

That could explain part of the increase from 50+, but not the teens and 20 somethings being lower than the 30-50 crowd as that set should be even busier with working full time, raising kids etc.  And that's backed up by looking at overall leisure time across age (also in Table 11).

Average total leisure time hours on weekend days/holidays:

15-19: 6.40
20-24: 6.67
25-34: 5.98
35-44: 5.55
45-54: 5.97
55-64: 6.58
65-74: 7.34
75+:    7.90

So those youngest brackets are reading less than the middle age brackets despite having more free time.  Reading just isn't as popular in my generation and below as it is in the older brackets.  And that's a big part of the decline of bookstores etc.  I'm as much at fault as anyone.  I read more than most of my friends, but it's rare I do any leisure reading other than in bed before sleeping as I enjoy things like sports, movies, video games etc. more than reading a novel.

What will be interesting to see is what happens in reading time among the older brackets as us younger generations age.  Will they start reading more and keep them about the same?  Or will they drop as the younger generations just never start reading at rates on par with their elders and continue spending more time on the internet, playing games etc?

I certainly read more now than I did in my teens and 20s--but that's more a function of the convenience of ebooks rather than any increased interest.

[katy32]

I was 25 when I got my first kindle, and I was in love from the time I opened the box.  My love/obsessive talking about the kindle caused all of my friends to get one, and so on and so forth.  We have our own private fb group where we swap books etc and there are 53 of us 32 and under on there.

My son, who is almost 5 has his eyes set on my k2, he is trying to learn to read, and wants my kindle as soon as he can read. He thinks it is the greatest thing ever. He loves how mommy can take all her books with her.  He loves it so much he wants to buy his teacher a kindle for Christmas this year.