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Print Over Digital

By: Sarah Ley

 

Over the past decade, reading has changed dramatically. From sitting with one's newspaper and coffee in hand as you stroll through the pages of your New York Times, to digitally clicking away at articles with the speed of light with your coffee-hand on the keyboard, and the other on the mouse. There have been many debates on whether or not this change is good. Some say that this movement towards digital reading allows more information to be read, but others disagree. Those opposing this movement, for example, say that this change in reading is not thorough and can cause a declining reading behavior. I believe that digital reading limits readers in what they have the potential to learn, whereas printed-in hand reading is a better source for the mind to gain and understand information.

 

As new technology keeps entering our world, it keeps bringing new options to decide between. The battle between print and digital reading has become more popular because of this. The options on which way you like read all have positives and negatives that coincide both ways. However, positives on printed reading I believe should be valued higher than those of digital reading. In author Ferris Jabr’s article, The Reading Brain in the Digital Age: The Science of Paper Versus Screens, he discusses how “modern screens and e-readers fail to adequately recreate certain tactile experiences of reading on paper” (Jabr). Digital reading is great for quick use since print reading takes a lot longer to analyze. However, he points out that since digital reading is so quick and easy, it limits the actual reading experience and what we take away and learn from what we read. He furthers in this when he discusses how being able to search for what you need digitally so easily decreases your skills of navigational reading. It limits the likelihood of comprehension.


But if there is a noticeable lack of this in digital reading, why do many keep switching to online sources instead of printed ones? Well, this modern day digital technology also allows for online articles and textbooks to be purchased cheaper than old school textbooks. Michael Wright, Director of College Sales at Norton (a common textbook publishing company) discussed, in the article For Many Students, Print is Still King, that specifically “students want cheaper textbooks” (Wright). This has come with the national awareness of how expensive higher education has become as well as the struggle of taking out loan on top of loans to pay for school finances. Students are realizing that digital versions of texts are usually much cheaper than printed ones. That is why they choose digital books a lot of the time, not because the format is actually benefiting them.


Studies have been done in order illustrate the negative effects of digital printing had on readers. In a scientific study, Reading behavior in the Digital Environment: Changes in Reading Behavior Over the Past Decade, Ziming Liu suggests digital reading and its correlation to competitive anxiety, declined attention spans, and shallower in-depth readings. His experiment followed participants for a ten year time span, where they were to evaluate their own personal reading behaviors by filling out questionnaires. His results were that with this move from print to digital reading, there has been an increase on the amount of information read. But this digital increase has its downfalls. Liu illustrates background information on how there was an information explosion which went hand and hand with being able to search whatever you would like on the internet. He states that this information explosion is what led digital reading to become so popular since it works so easily.


However, the results from his questionnaires displays that even though more is being read, the text is not read as intensively. It allows readers to selectively scan readings for key words, throwing the thought of in-depth reading out the window. This capability of finding more information in a shorter amount of time has also allowed employees to search and read more. This Liu explains has led many more people to deal with competitive anxiety in the work place, seeing who could scan and pass along information the fastest. He calculates from his results that this scanning decreased the 54% of annotators and in-depth readers of print reading to a small 11% when reading digital. This access to read things digitally decreases the value of actually learning and acquiring comprehension of knowledge since one can just “re-search” once they have forgotten what they needed to know.

 

I derived my personal preference of print reading from my experience between the two. Throughout all of my education, until recently, I was always provided printed readings, physical text books, and booklets. My dislike for change could be a factor of my dislike for digital reading; however I feel that if that was the case, I would be able to adjust if my grades depended on it. I remember the last year of high school we began to switch to digital reading on computers, phones, and iPads. I felt as if I could not comprehend anything that I read- I would have to read whatever I was assigned multiple times in order to understand it. When I had the actual textbook in my hand I felt that I was more interactive with texts.


As I read, I could note important concepts and highlight things that I would need to know. I know that there are websites that allow you to annotate online, but they take so long and would just frustrate and lead me to give up on whatever reading I was doing. I also dislike having to stay in one room to read. Whenever the weather was nice I would read and do my homework outside, which is difficult if you are limited to areas that only receive Wi-Fi in order to read digital print. Although I admit most of my reading was due to assigned homework from school, there were times where I did read in my spare time. I specifically remember downloading the second installment of the hunger games on my iPad. I felt disconnected to the book the entire time and after reading I would dealt with throbbing headaches and tired eyes from the bright light flashing in my face as I turned page after page.

 

The change from print to digital has been very progressive the past few years. Some are for it, while others cannot stand it. Scientific studies and research illustrate the benefits of our traditional printed reading style, seeing pros in comprehension and interactive reading levels. White digital texts are becoming a cheaper competition, I believe that with time its flaw will become more apparent by the actions and lack of knowledge of our growing generations will have. Yes reading from print may start to become old fashioned, but why change something that works well and potentially better than its latest rival?

 

Work Cited:

 

Liu, Z. (2005). Reading behavior in the digital environment: Changes in reading behavior over the past ten years. Journal of Documentation, 61(6), 700-712. Retrieved from https://login.ezproxy1.lib.depaul.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/217977973?accountid=10477

 

"The Reading Brain in the Digital Age: The Science of Paper versus Screens: Scientific American." The Reading Brain in the Digital Age: The Science of Paper versus Screens: Scientific American. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2013.

 

Howard, Jennifer. "Technology." For Many Students, Print Is Still King. Cronicle, n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2013.

DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.