More people aged over 55 own e-readers than the younger generation, according to a new study on digital reading habits, reported in The Bookseller, under the headline "More over-50s own e-readers than youngsters". Data released by research company OnePoll showed 6% of readers in the over-55 category–equivalent to 500,000 people–own a digital device to consume literature in comparison to just 5% of those aged 18–24.

Headlines like this are amusing because they imply two things:

1) The internet is a brave new world - newsflash it has been with us for quite a long time now.

2) That only young people use the net and therefore are the key consumers

It is because the net has been around so long that those over 50's were actually among the first adopters of the web. Many would have been in their 30's when the excitement of the internet started logging in with dial up modems and at first trawling bulletin boards before venturing out there on the information highway.

eReaders also have some inherent positives for the over 50's, and this is not patronising because I am closer to this age group than I'd like, mainly it is the fulfilment of a device which can download and read books easily, alter text size and not place strain on the eyes. This is a generation that looked at eBooks in their development on the net for the past decade waiting for an eReader which didn't look like it had been designed by Alan Sugar in 1985 and now with the Kindle and a host of other suitably priced eReaders to choose from are adopting the technology they have waited patiently for at a price which is right.

As for youngsters, it would be as remiss and patronising of me to infer based only on social and media hearsay that they have no interest in reading anymore...