You might think the answer is a resounding "yes" in this digital age, but a recent report from The Washington Post has shown some surprising facts to the contrary. It seems that the current generation of students — who we think are buried in electronics all the time — are more attracted to the white pages of physical books than we thought.

Typically, a book lover would point out to the rich and physical experience of paper to explain why they love books — the smell of a new novel or an old one, the faint rustle as you turn the pages, the crack of the spine and the feel of the paper when you turn the page. But these age-old experiences are not why these millennials prefer books. It's the awareness that they can retain information better when they read print.

Parents who have been ruing the fact that their kids are not reading enough should take heart. Children these days have lesser concentration levels than before, a fact that has been harrowing for teachers and parents alike. But it seems they have turned out to be smarter than we give them credit for.

More students have cited that retaining information from a digital screen is more difficult than from paper. The pilot study was conducted with readers aged between 18 to 29 years who have shown the highest print readership rates and also significant library use.

They are not technophobes like a lot of their parents but a generation that has learned to think and judge which technologies they want to use for themselves. They have grown up with all kinds, so there is hardly any blind pressure attached anymore.

The overall market for K-12 instructional resources has been reported at $9 billion, of which print publishing is still a significant part. Conversion to digital classrooms and flipped classrooms have helped e-readers gain a foothold, but it's still nowhere as strong as the tech world wants it to be.

McGraw-Hill, Pearson and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt still hold about 85 percent of this market. Though Internet usage and digital device ownership has grown by leaps and bounds in the last five years, the textbook publishing industry is still going strong.

Despite the positive figures however, they need to remain cautious. In 1996, only about 14 percent of K-12 classrooms had Internet access compared to the 98 percent now, which shows that e-readers could well be the future. Now the U.S. education technology market is worth $8.38 billion, according to the 2014 report by the Education Technology Industry Network (ETIN) of the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA).

Detractors for digital readers stress that they offer more distraction than help, are expensive, high-maintenance and consume a massive amount of energy. Not to mention the fact that they also lead to several vision problems and headaches. If there is a 100 percent shift to digital textbooks on tablets, they fear that children will grow up with knowledge, and also unwanted health issues.

Proponents of e-readers say that the benefits far outweigh the negatives. Since the world is going digital, why not make it easier for kids to adapt to technologies that they are going to use in future? E-readers provide seamless connectivity among schools, teachers, students and parents that will improve overall educational performance.

Digital textbooks are cheaper than print textbooks and offer more storage, allowing one to own more books than they could before. Most of all, the use of e-readers will save paper and, in the process, the planet.

For a while, it seemed that nothing could stop the digital march. But the recent Washington Post survey has been quite an eye-opener. Print publishers are feeling quite vindicated, while e-reader investors are quite put out.

But they are not giving up yet. A new market research report from Reportstack shows that the global digital education publishing market is expected to grow at a rate of 18.33 percent from 2014-2019.

Proponents for e-readers have pointed out that reading convenience for students is all that matters. In the long run, this will determine the real growth in the global digital education publishing market.