Digital or Print Books?
Which method is more effective for learning?
Whether you're an avid reader or just try to cope with academic assignments, chances are you already tried both reading methods.
What does the research say?
Current research suggests that reading digital text leads to a lower understanding and less critical reflection. Taking into consideration that during the pandemic most students around the world were forced to switch to online learning, this could have had an impact on their academic performance. A study (Pablo Delgado et al, 2018) conducted on the subject concluded that paper-based reading results in better comprehension outcomes than online or digital texts.
The Shallowing Hypothesis
Some researchers suggested that it could also be linked to the so-called "shallowing hypothesis” which in plain words means that the bad habits people gained while using the internet might be spilling over, transferring into our online reading habits, like reading faster and faster every day just to try to get things done, so it becomes more superficially reading than analytically.”
Also a matter of preference
I personally prefer print books to digital ones, I am definitely willing to sacrifice the practicality of having thousands of texts stored in a digital memory for the smell of the fresh pages, maybe my case is a bit different from other people of my age, it might be because of the fact that reading print books has been an activity that I learned and enjoyed doing from a very young age, so it definitely does not feel like work when I have to do it for a university assignment. Conversely, storing tons of digital books in the cloud so I can go back later to read them is something that I usually associate with a task that needs to be completed.
Featured on this post you can see a picture of one of my favourite books, Les Misérables by Victor Hugo, a classical piece of history that catches your attention from the very first line until the end. A beautiful combination of romance in times of war, personally, I do not think any other storyline could beat this one.
