Digital vs. Paper

I come from a family of Art Majors. Both of my parents work in publishing, books are all around us and have always been a huge part of our lives. As the digital technology industry has grown e-books have emerged and become popular. At first I was excited by e-book. It was convenient to be able to carry around 50 or so books just on my tablet. When I got to Stevens it was also often cheaper to buy the e-book instead of the hard copy. Although, as my semester progressed I found that I missed the physical book. I found I had more trouble concentrating on the e-book, that it hurt my eyes, and that I was not absorbing the information as well. So while they were more expensive I started to buy the textbooks again. At first my parents felt threatened by e-books. They felt like it was going to tear their industry apart and that the book was going to become obsolete. However, they began training to design e-books for websites, computers, and tablets. This made them feel a little more secure.

While I find myself drawn to the physical book more than the e-book I feel the opposite about another topic, receipts. My Mom still collects all her paper receipts from everything and anything. From the new laptop she bought to milk from Kings she keeps it all. I never have really thought about keeping receipts since it is all on my bank statement. However, my Mom tells me I am wrong that that I should keep it all. So what is the difference why does one paper copy bother me while another makes me more comfortable? Why does one make my Mom more nervous than the other? It could be because it has to do with finances or it could be the generation gap who really knows. I am interested to see if texts books and e-books will become like this for the next generation. That they will think it is strange that I prefer a text to something online. What other forms of "paper" will transfer over to digital in the future and how will they be perceived by society?