Do We Have to Use ebooks?

I mean do they even have to exist? The idea of an ebook is indeed fascinating. The ability to have all 300 pages of a book suddenly downloaded into a compact file onto a digital device of a user's choice seems thrilling, but is it really worth it? Growing up the allure with books was that it symbolized a sense of tangible accomplishment. Read this amount pages per night, get a gold star. Read five books or more on the summer reading list, get your name added to an achievement list. For me, receiving awards for my impressive elementary feats was great, however, what I felt most proud of was finishing a thick book and basking in my own glory at how many pages I read. You couldn't tell me anything after I finished reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. It might have taken me a few months, but it was still a tangible accomplishment measured by tangible pages in a tangible thick book. 

ebooks may be real but they do not exist. They don't take up room on my desk. I can't feel the weight of one when I toss it into my backpack. Heck, I find pulling up eBooks on my computer to be more of a pain than just opening up a book, but technology dictates how society functions. We live in a society where if new useful technology is introduce there is an automatic push to adopt the technology without knowing the complete effects. In this sense, like the article states, "ebooks both express and embody a practical critique of consumer capitalism." 

If this is the case, I think it's clear that consumer's are not ready to fully embrace the change to ebooks. Consumers like the idea of adopting technology, but the masses are slow to do so. It can be seen in how Simon & Schuster and Arthur Anderson predictions about the ebook market failed. Although this article from the Pew Research Center does acknowledge that slightly fewer Americans are reading print books, Americans are still reading more print books than ebooks. The gap will surely grow smaller as time progresses, however, I don't think ebooks will ever be the dominate form people believe it will be, and if it does, it will not be until much later. 

Hopefully I won't be reading much when that time comes.