Imagine a day when young people would go to school carrying only an electronic device that weighs less than a pound. The advent and growing popularity of electronic textbooks could make this a reality in the shortest possible time. No more students trudging around with 20-pound backpacks strapped to their backs. No more cabinets full of textbooks and notebooks. The benefits of switching to electronic textbooks are many, offering benefits to both students and teachers. Electronic textbooks can be updated faster than traditional textbooks and can also provide resources that traditional books cannot provide. Because reprinting textbooks is expensive, they are rarely corrected, and schools often have outdated versions that are 5-10 years old (Acker, 42). Information in traditional textbooks is often outdated and images can be very dated. For example, Pluto is still listed as a plant in our solar system in many science books, even though it was decided in 2006 that it is actually a dwarf planet. In some cases, a textbook may be updated every few years, but many high schools do not purchase the new edition due to the high costs. In our current economy, many schools can neither justify nor afford the several hundred dollars it would cost to purchase a new edition with few changes. With electronic texts, corrections and updates can be made quickly and at a fraction of the cost of their paper counterparts. Additionally, e-textbooks don't just include words. “The nature of literacy is changing; includes not only text but also symbols and visual images or icons that make up graphical user interfaces. (Hassell, 117) Visual images and icons can be found on virtually every electronic device… middle of paper… first generation digital natives. New York: Basic Books, 2008. Print.Shepperd, James A., Jodi L. Grace, and Erika J. Koch. "Evaluating the electronic textbook: is it time to do without the paper text?". Teaching Psychology 35.1 (2008): 2-5. Elite academic research. Network. 8 May 2012."Technology in the middle » Blog archive » Digital literacy 101: lesson concluded but not finished." Technology in the middle. Np, nd Web. May 23, 2012. ."Virtual Textbooks Gain Popularity in the Classroom - News - The University Echo - Student Weekly at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga." The University Echo - Student weekly newspaper of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Np, nd Web. May 7 2012. .