Recently there has been a good bit of research that has brought to light the difference in how our brain processes what we could call analogue habits vs tech habits, including handwriting v typing and e-readers v physical books. A recent blog I wrote centered around the "Just One Book" study, which showed how dramatically having one real book in the house affected literacy and future educational success. One of the most surprising findings in this study was that there was no bump in literacy or education success metrics for e-readers or digital reading on computers. As an avid reader, both physical copies and e-readers, I was floored to see this. I decided to dig a little deeper, and here's what I found.
In 2018, researchers analyzed 54 studies where people read the exact same thing on paper and on screens, and people understood more when they read on paper every time (Delgado et al., 2018). This was especially true for textbooks, news articles, and anything with facts you actually need to learn. Kids who grew up with iPads aren't any better at screen reading than older people, and the advantage of paper is actually getting stronger over time, not weaker (Delgado et al., 2018). It turns out that physical books make your brain settle into a focused "deep reading" mode, while screens put your brain in scanning and skimming mode even when you're really trying to concentrate (Clinton, 2019).
Too Much Distraction
When you read on a screen, your brain is trying to juggle too much at the same time. Part of your brain is reading, while other parts are watching for notifications and resisting the urge to go look at something else more interesting to the brain (aka easier dopamine than reading). The brain only has so much neural energy, and these distractions all eat away at that reserve. It basically takes away the neural energy needed for focus, and before you know it, you are re-reading the same page for the fourth time and have no idea what your heroine's name is. All this background noise steals brain power away from actually understanding and remembering what you're reading (Zivan et al., 2023). Physical books eliminate all these distractions completely, so your brain can put 100% of its energy into the actual reading instead of managing what equals to too many tabs open.
Why the Physical Book is Different
Your brain makes a mental map when you read physical books, which is why you can remember things like "that fact was on the left page near the bottom" or "that was somewhere in the middle of the book" (Mangen et al., 2019). You feel the weight shift as pages move from right to left, and you can see your progress visually, and all these physical clues help your brain organize information in your memory. On screens, every page looks exactly the same, so your brain loses all these helpful spatial cues, which makes it way harder to remember the order of events or understand how different ideas connect to each other (Mangen et al., 2019).
Writing in Books Helps You Remember
People take fewer notes and do less highlighting when they read on screens, even though digital tools make it technically possible (Mangen et al., 2019). When you physically write with a pen on paper, the hand movement creates extra connections in your brain that help lock in the information. Plus, you can see all your notes at a glance when you flip back through a physical book, while digital notes tend to get lost or forgotten in whatever app you're using.
The Illusion of Knowing
This should get your attention! When people read on screens, they think they understood way more than they actually did, but when they read on paper, they're pretty accurate about knowing what they got and what they missed (Singer & Alexander, 2017). This means students feel totally confident after reading their homework on a laptop, but then they bomb the test because they didn't actually understand it like they thought. This "illusion of knowing" happens constantly with screen reading and can really hurt grades (Singer & Alexander, 2017).
A Balanced Approach for Fun but Maybe not for Students
I love my e-reader. It lets me have a book with me at all times and makes reading when traveling very convenient. I read, rather than scroll, almost everywhere. I've only touched the surface of the research available on this topic, but reading this study in full has given me an entirely new perspective.
As a mid-40's woman, I read for enjoyment but also to exercise my brain and keep new neural pathways forming. The reality that anything I read on my e-reader is doing nothing for my brain is disheartening. I will continue to read on my e-reader part time however, the results were striking enough that I will make sure I am splitting my time between physical books and digital from now on.
For children, it can be so frustrating to do everything you're being told to be successful just to still struggle academically. You read the chapter or teacher’s notes (but it was online/ digital) and then felt ready and then the test results make it seem like you didn't study at all.
If we take all this research to heart, we have a compelling case for the return to physical textbooks and limited online digital resources for information that students will be tested on.
References
Clinton, V. (2019). Reading from paper compared to screens: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Research in Reading, 42(2), 288–325.
Delgado, P., Vargas, C., Ackerman, R., & Salmerón, L. (2018). Don't throw away your printed books: A meta-analysis on the effects of reading media on reading comprehension. Educational Research Review, 25, 23–38.
Mangen, A., Olivier, G., & Velay, J.-L. (2019). Comparing comprehension of a long text read in print book and on Kindle: Where in the text and when in the story? Frontiers in Psychology, 10, 38.
Singer, L. M., & Alexander, P. A. (2017). Reading across mediums: Effects of reading digital and print texts on comprehension and calibration. The Journal of Experimental Education, 85(1), 155–172.
Zivan, M., Vaknin, S., Peleg, N., Ackerman, R., & Horowitz-Kraus, T. (2023). Higher theta-beta ratio during screen-based vs. printed paper is related to lower attention in children: An EEG study. PLOS ONE, 18(5), e0283863.