Why Books Are Better Than Screens for Reading

Summary: Screens are good for skimming when you need to scan text, search or sift through information, and find content quickly.  But books are better than screens for deep reading that requires focusing, recalling, and reflecting upon what you learned.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, there was already a growing trend in education to incorporate digital technologies in the curriculum.  However, the pandemic accelerated this trend, making laptops, tablet computers, and smart devices the norm in education, both in classroom settings and for distance learning.  As a result, there has been a significant rise in screen time among students.

Of course, to make room for screen time, something must give; and what gives is often the book.  In other words, screen media are replacing print media in much of the educational curriculum, from K-12 to college.  Nevertheless, as digital technology becomes commonplace in both traditional and virtual classrooms, certain questions arise:

Has education improved with more screen time?  Or, is there evidence to the contrary—that books are better than screens for learning?  For example, with respect to basic literacy skills such as reading, does digital technology help or hinder students?

Research on Reading Screens vs. Books

Over the years, a number of studies have tried to shed light on those questions.  By and large, most of the research points to a surprising result.  To date, there’s not a lot of evidence that digital technologies have significantly improved learning so far, including basic literacy skills like reading.

In spite of this research, it’s obviously not realistic to suggest schools toss new technology out of the educational curriculum.  After all, just about any kind of learning requires some type of technology, whether old or new.  Books are technologies for reading, just as pens, pencils, and notebooks are technologies for writing.  Therefore, instead of asking if screens are better than books, or if books are better than screens, we can ask a more pragmatic question:

What types of technologies work better for which kinds of learning?

For instance, to understand how screens and books help (or hinder) different kinds of reading, we need to look at the cognitive differences between reading screens versus reading books.  That is, how does each medium affect the way our minds learn or processes information?

Reading Screens vs. Reading Books

When it comes to reading, we can point to three differences between screen and print media: light, haptics, and distractions.

Light

One difference between screens and books is the way our eyes interact with light.  When we read screens, light comes through the screen, directly at our retinas.  This is why media guru Marshall McLuhan referred to screens as “light through” media.  Since it’s difficult for our eyes to stare at direct light for long periods of time, we tend to scan screens and not focus on them.

(In fact, if we stare at direct light from screens too much, we risk developing digital eye strain—a.k.a. computer vision syndrome.  Quick side note: It’s possible to at least partly mitigate the glare of direct light using anti-reflective coating on eyeglasses, but our eyes will still tend to scan screens regardless whenever light shines directly at them.)

In contrast, when we read books, light reflects off the page before meeting our eyes.  Hence, McLuhan called books “light on” media, as opposed to “light through” media like screens (McLuhan, 1962, p 105).  Reflected light, unlike direct light, makes it easy for our eyes to stare at printed pages for lengthy durations.  Simply put, it’s more comfortable for our eyes to focus on books, especially in comparison to screens.

In sum, we tend to scan screens because they emit direct light.  Conversely, it’s easier to focus on books because they reflect light.  Consequently, books are better than screens for visual focus, while screens are better than books for visual scanning.

Haptics

Another difference between screens and books has to do with the haptic experiences these media enable.  By haptic, we mean the touching sensations that our arms, hands, and fingers feel while reaching out to grab an object.

Think about the haptic experience of reading a book.  When we touch and flip through the pages, we’re using hand-eye coordination to feel the weight of what we’re seeing.  This allows us to not just see the book but also feel if it’s big or small, thick or thin.  Coordinating visual focus with haptic feeling has a unique cognitive effect.  It puts our minds into an immersive state of concentration (Mangen, 2008).

Screens don’t replicate this haptic feeling, meaning they don’t help our minds enter a state of concentration.  Screens entail a very different kind of haptic experience.  They’re better suited for scrolling through content or zooming in and out of imagery, such as when you’re searching for a specific piece of information, like a keyword or graphic.

Interestingly, this difference has practical implications for how we remember what we read.  The haptic experience of reading books helps us concentrate, which facilitates memory retention and recall.  For instance, readers who read books—rather than screens—have an easier time remembering what they read (Jabr, April 2013; Jabr, November 2013).

So, when it comes to reading, books are better than screens for concentrating and recalling content from memory.  In contrast, screens are better than books for searching or sifting through information to find content quickly.

Distractions

In addition to light and haptics, there’s at least one other difference between screens and books: the presence or absence of digital distractions.

Clearly, books don’t contain the kinds of build-in distractions screens may have, such as games or social media apps.  Not surprisingly, the more digital distractions there are, the easier it is to multitask, and the harder it is to focus and reflect on what you’re reading.  That’s because, unlike computers, human being cannot really multitask—we can only switch between tasks, which naturally breaks focus and puts the mind into a distracted state.

For example, studies show that most students who use laptops in the classroom end up spending considerable time multitasking, which distracts them from learning class material (Fried, 2006; Sana et al., 2013).  In short, when digital technology distracts students, they find it difficult to pay attention and reflect upon the subject matter.

Books Are Better Than Screens for Deep Reading

To conclude, due to light, haptics, and distractions, books tend to work better for the kinds of learning that require focusing, recalling, and reflecting (as opposed to scanning, searching, or multitasking).  That’s why books are better than screens for reading—particularly concentrated or deep reading (and not merely skimming).

Deep reading means slowly and deliberately perusing a text.  Unlike skimming, the goal of deep reading is to enhance reading comprehension and fathom depth of meaning (Wolf, 2018, p 92; Birkerts, 1994, p 146).  Literature teachers sometimes refer to this skill as “reading between the lines.”

Nevertheless, just because books are better than screens for deep reading, this doesn’t mean skimming screens has no place in education.  In Part II of this article, we explore the kind of learning screens are better for: namely, interactive learning.

 

References

Birkerts, Sven. (1994). The Gutenberg Elegies: The Fate of Reading in an Electronic Age. Boston: Faber and Faber.

Fried, Carrie B. (April 2008). In-class laptop use and its effects on student learning. Computers & Education, 50(3), 906-914. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2006.09.006

Jabr, Ferris. (April, 2013). The Reading Brain in the Digital Age: The Science of Paper versus Screens. Scientific American. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/reading-paper-screens/

Jabr, Ferris. (November, 2013). The Reading Brain in the Digital Age: Why Paper Still Beats Screens. Scientific American. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-reading-brain-in-the-digital-age-why-paper-still-beats-screens/

Mangen, Anne. (2008). Hypertext fiction reading: haptics and immersion. Journal of Research in Reading, ISSN 0141-0423, 31(4), 404-419. http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9817.2008.00380.x

McLuhan, Marshall. (1962). The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of Typographic Man. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

Sana, Faria, Weston, Tina, and Cepeda, Nicholas J. (2013). Laptop multitasking hinders classroom learning for both users and nearby peers. Computers & Education, 62, 24-31. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2012.10.003

Wolf, Maryanne. (2018). Reader, Come Home: The Reading Brain in a Digital World. New York: Harper.