From: "James J. O'Donnell" <[log in to unmask]> Date: Fri, 16 Dec 2011 10:30:04 -0500 With thanks for comments on my last update. To Laval H., I observed only that I did not count "chatting" as an activity because the Amtrak "Quiet Car," civilization's last bulwark against a world of cell yellers, would skew the numbers. On a cross-country flight yesterday, I happened to notice that my row of seats had six tablet computers, so I got up to do a count of about 150 seats, from which: 30 were reading print; 11 were reading e-readers (dedicated Kindle/Nook or iPad that I could see was being read for text), 16 were using an electronic device for other purposes (mainly laptops but also video on a tablet) There was some chatting and a lot of napping, lolling, and staring. My *mild* observation is that I had imagined the e-/print reading ratio would have been higher, given that long-haul trains and planes are populated by people with *some* disposable cash and with an interest in diverting themselves effectively, and for all that we hear of sales, the numbers are still modest. I repeat my observation, though, that the tablet/laptop/phone provides other resources for distraction besides "reading". I'm well aware there is no statistical significance to these observations: systematic surveying would be interesting. Jim O'Donnell Georgetown