Are eReaders Elitist?

My best friend recently asked me my opinion on eReaders and which I thought was best… It turned out to be a long conversation that I ended by saying that I had yet to be impressed and was tired of lugging around a purse containing my cell, my camera, Flip, ipod, [insert gadget/item here]…

Even the cheapest ereader costs a couple of hundred dollars but that is par for the course with most new tech items. I just read that one of my favorite authors, Sherman Alexie, considers ereaders elitist. That’s an interesting perspective.

As someone, who grew up incredibly poor – I never had the luxury of going to a bookstore to pick out books as a child. The only new books I got where selected from the Scholastic school brochure, which I awaited very enthusiastically and those weren’t always offered. All my other books were flea market finds. Books were prized treasures to me (and still are). In the larger spectrum of things and more so then, 500 years ago, printed books were elitist items, go further back in history and the divide widens more and more by gender, class and monasticism.

In an age, where almost everyone regardless of income level has a cell phone or an ipod, I wonder if down the line at some point in the future everyone will be able to afford an ereader or have access to one for free. Will the textbooks of the future come on an ereader?

Lastly, I wondered what is your take on this question: Do you think ereaders are elitist? Do you think that will change?

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