I definitely prefer digital! While I love using inks and watercolors here and there to play around in my sketchbook, I work so much faster digitally. Although I toyed around with digital art programs a lot starting in middle school, so I guess that explains my preference :'D
Although it is a lot more expensive for me to pay for the CC Suite each month, I'm so accustomed to using digital that I think it's worth the price. I'm also a huge fan of Cintiqs and think that they're worth the price, too! I recommend along with others here though to start with a regular tablet if you don't have the funds and are beginning to be acquainted with digital media

Thank you very much! That was very insightful. I never realized that cost to entry is such a huge barrier. Is that because Adobe has a monopoly on these products?
There are certainly other programs you can use! If you have a Windows computer, you can use Paint Tool SAI. There aren't as many features, but it's great for getting gradient-like colors and AWESOME if you use line art a lot. It's not available on Mac platforms, though, so if you have a Mac, that won't work.
Another program I used to use before learning how to better use Photoshop is Autodesk Sketchbook Pro. It's $25 a year, and if you buy it around Black Friday, they usually have a 50% off sale for your first year. It has a lot more painterly brushes then SAI does, and it has a brush stabilizer tool that makes SUPER clean line art. Granted, I don't think the painterly brushes are as nice as the ones you can download on Photoshop, which is primarily why I switched. (Also because it's what my college was primarily making us use. That, and they had a class on computer illustration. which made it a lot easier to get acquainted with the interface and features.)
Another cool thing about it is that you can save your files as Photoshop files, so if you're using it and decide to try using it in Photoshop instead, you can use the files in both programs! You can also still make your own brushes in Sketchbook Pro like you can in Photoshop, which is neat!

If you decide you want to delve into Photoshop but you're worried about the cost, they have a photography package that includes Adobe Lightroom (no idea what it is, but it's included!) for only $10 a month. There's also the option that Karen suggested, with Photoshop Express! I think that's primarily for mobile devices, but if you usually work on your phone or tablet anyway, then it's great!