Reading on paper and reading on a screen have some key qualities that differ greatly, Farris Jabr along with other contributors show in great detail how the brain reacts to both and why some would say reading on paper is more beneficial. Ferris Jabr’s article “The Reading Brain in the Digital Age: The Science of Paper versus Screens” talks about something that we might not even realize when reading a simple online text or paperback. Ferris is a contributing writer to the New York Times and Scientific American along with a handful of others including Wired, Foreign Policy, New scientist, and The Awl. Ferris has a Masters of Arts in journalism from New York University and a Bachelor’s of Science from Tufts University. He currently resides in Portland, Oregon.
The audience that Ferris targets is this article is essentially anyone but mostly focused on readers of both paperback and e-readers. His first example is of a one-year old who when presented with a paper magazine isn’t sure how to turn the pages and treats it like a tablet. This can be explained in the video and short response by her father, Jean- Louis Constanza “A Magazine Is an iPad That Does Not Work” which shows in some cases everything should work the same way as the technology we’ve used. “Magazines are now useless and impossible to understand, for digital natives” (Jean-Louis Constanza) can be seen a possible explanation for why the one-year old was trying to use the magazine as an I-pad but I think she was just being a curious and touching the pages. Whatever the case, technology has a significant effect on how we learn new things and the experience we take from previous things.
Another focus was on 10th grade students at the University of Stavanger in Norway which showed that students who read the texts on the computers performed a little worse than who read on paper. They were given one narrative and one expository text with about 1500 words in length and were then required to complete reading comprehension tests with multiple choice and short answer questions. “The ease with which you can find out the beginning, end and everything in-between and the constant connection to your path, your progress in the text, might be some way of making it less taxing cognitively, so you have more free capacity for comprehension” (F. Jabr) which shows that students who could hold the text in its entirety could quickly and accurately navigate and absorb the information they were looking for, whereas navigating on a screen was much more tedious and showed a disconnection cognitively.
Reading on screens and reading on paper is relevant to anyone that reads and is an important point to make when discussing how technology changes the way we read. When reading on a computer is feels much more intangible than reading a physical book. The sensory experiences associated with reading are in some cases lost when looking at a screen. The feel of the pages, the satisfaction of completing a chapter, and visually seeing the progress are just a few of the main advantages in reading a paperback. Remembering contextual details and recalling information are also key when reading a book. “Other researchers have suggested that people comprehend less when they read on a screen because screen-based reading is more physically and mentally taxing than reading on paper” (F. Jabr) this shows that ambient light shining directly into people’s faces can cause eyestrain, headaches, and blurred vision making e-reading more taxing in general.
Even though this article was written in late 2013 it still conveys a current and relevant message that shows the unique advantages of reading on paper vs tablets and e-readers. The Scientific American was a good outlet to discuss this argument because of the like-minded articles that make up the website. This genre of technology mixed in with real life studies and personal contributions was well worth reading and made you think of which one I prefer and how has it has affected me in my daily life. Paper books have a clear advantage over e-readers for being cognitively engaging and tangible as opposed to eye strain and making information harder to distinguish and remember.