Pros and Cons of eTextbooks

By Brittany Hawes on April 25, 2018

Are eTextbooks really the thing of the future?

For years, buying textbooks for courses has been a part of every college student’s life. Thick textbooks lined the shelves of every bookstore on campus. If you were lucky, there was someone available to help you track down the textbooks you needed for class on the shelves. If you weren’t lucky and there was no one around to help you … well, let’s just hope you didn’t have a class to be heading to very soon.

Besides buying physical textbooks, we’ve all become accustomed to carrying around these textbooks as well. Lugging textbooks from class to class was the norm. Do you remember what would happen if you left your textbook in your car? Or worse, at home? A forgotten textbook could mean a bad grade in class. But with so many other textbooks to squeeze into your backpack, it’s easy to forget one or two.

Now that eTextbooks are around, it’s become clear that change has arrived. Textbooks don’t have to be the gigantic masses of paper weighing down your backpack anymore. You can now have access to literally hundreds of dense textbooks and have them all stored safely away — on your device, I should add.

pros and cons of etextbooks

Are textbooks a thing of the past? (Image via Pixabay.com)

But are eTextbooks simply too good to be true? Are they really the thing of the future or are we better off sticking to what we know best? Here I have listed the pros and cons of buying eTextbooks so you can make that decision for yourself.

PROS OF BUYING eTEXTBOOKS

Etextbooks are becoming more and more popular. Here are some of the reasons you might give them a go.

  • Portability

One of the plus sides of buying eTextbooks is how transportable they are. eTextbooks can come with you to class via your laptop, your tablet, or even your phone. Because no college student leaves one of these items behind, this makes it virtually impossible to forget your textbooks at home. They’ll always be with you.

It goes without saying, but eTextbooks will lighten up your backpack … tremendously. Studies have shown that heavy backpacks can cause back pain in children (which can affect you in later life). Toting around a laptop instead of three or four heavy paper textbooks could save you some pain in the future.

  • Cheaper prices

Another reason to buy eTextbooks: how incredibly cheap they can be. For example, this Psychology eTextbook is free for Kindle through Amazon.com. However, if you were to order a physical copy of that same textbook, it would cost you around $30.00. This same price difference holds true for many digital textbooks versus physical textbooks. Buying eTextbooks could save you a lot of money. All students know that if there’s a way to save money on textbooks, go for it!

  • Interactivity

A cool thing about eTextbooks is that you’ll be able to kiss notebooks and loose leaf paper goodbye. That’s right; switch to taking notes directly through your textbook instead of writing it down on paper. Many eTextbooks offer a note-taking system within the book itself, making paper unnecessary. It’s so much easier to have everything stored directly in the eTextbook rather than jammed into a manila folder or stashed between the damp pages of a physical textbook.

That’s not the only interactive feature some eTextbooks have. Swapping notes with other eTextbook users is also available in some books. You can scribble customized notes directly on the page and send that page to your classmate. How cool is that?

CONS OF BUYING eTEXTBOOKS

Perfection is sought after by many, but rarely achieved. Here are some of the disadvantages of buying an eTextbook for your future classes.

  • Eye Strain

A big problem with using a device with an illuminated screen is that you can strain your eyes if you look at it for long enough periods of time. With a textbook, you’ll most likely be poring over its digital pages as you study late into the night, trying to get ready for exams and class projects. Eye strain could become a problem if you use it too much.

With a physical textbook, you wouldn’t need to worry about straining your eyes, as long as you have a proper light source near you as you read.

  • Device necessary

Of course, if you get an eTextbook, you’re going to need a device to read it on. If you don’t have an electronic device capable of downloading an eTextbook that you can take with you to class and back home, then you won’t be able to use an eTextbook. This limits the number of people able to use eTextbooks because not every college student can afford electronic devices, especially when there are so many other finances students must take care of.

If you don’t have a device, then owning an eTextbook won’t be possible.

  • No refund value

Want to know the best thing about buying a physical textbook? Selling it right back to the store or to another poor, unfortunate soul to get you some quick cash! However, did you know? If you buy an eTextbook, you won’t be able to sell it back for cash.

So if you’re wanting to get some money back after the semester is through, buying an eTextbook might not be the right move for you.

What did you think of this list of pros and cons? Will you stick to your paper textbooks… or are you ready to embrace the future?

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