‘DIFFERENCE BETWEEN READING FROM SCREEN AND READING FROM PAPER’
INTODUCTION
Reading provides us with a number of benefits in and of itself. There have been a number of studies that have shown that reading throughout the course of a person’s lifetime can result in the prevention of mental decline. In addition to keeping your minds sharp while increasing your knowledge base, reading has the ability to enhancing a person’s sense of empathy.
One aspect that many Do not shield you from text messages, email, social media updates and more. One aspect that many do not take in to account is the manner in which you read. It is the manner that can have an impact on your mental as well as physical health. Within our world that has become expressly technologically driven, the long beloved paperback book has been replaced by electronic devices. It appears that it is no longer very practical to read a traditional paperback book.
Even with the abundance of technology that surrounds us, there is something special as well as quite simplistic about reading a thrilling tale from a paperback as opposed to from an e-book. Unlike electronic devices, a paperback book offers no distractions. You are able to focus solely on the story being laid out before you within the pages of the paperback. Electronic devices
There are many components, factors and conditions that can come into play here, such as the reader, the material, the purpose and the technology. Not only the reader’s proficiency, background and expectations must be kept in mind, but also the type of material that is being referred to and the kind of screen that is being used. It is not a case of “one size fits all,” but patterns are beginning to emerge from emprical research into the subject. The length of the text seems to be the most critical factor. If the text is long, needs to be read carefully and perhaps involves making notes, then studies show that many people, including young people such as students, still often prefer a printed book, even if it is available as both an e-book and in electronic formats with options for making notes, enabling the user to search for and highlight the text digitally. This is not the case when it comes to shorter texts.
Understanding how reading on paper is different from reading on screens requires some explanation of how the brain interprets written language. We often think of reading as a cerebral activity concerned with the abstract—with thoughts and ideas, tone and themes, metaphors and motifs. As far as our brains are concerned, however, text is a tangible part of the physical world we inhabit. In fact, the brain essentially regards letters as physical objects because it does not really have another way of understanding them. As Wolf explains in her book Proust and the Squid, we are not born with brain circuits dedicated to reading. After all, we did not invent writing until relatively recently in our evolutionary history, around the fourth millennium B.C. So the human brain improvises a brand-new circuit for reading by weaving together various regions of neural tissue devoted to other abilities, such as spoken language, motor coordination and vision.
The brain literally goes through the motions of writing when reading, even if the hands are empty. Researchers recently discovered that the same thing happens in a milder way when some people read cursive. Beyond treating individual letters as physical objects, the human brain may also perceive a text in its entirety as a kind of physical landscape. When we read, we construct a mental representation of the text in which meaning is anchored to structure. The exact nature of such representations remains unclear, but they are likely similar to the mental maps we create of terrain—such as mountains and trails—and of man-made physical spaces, such as apartments and office .
A MATTER OF ATTENTION
One of the most important aspects of reading to consider is attention. Reading is a challenging mental task even when conditions are perfect, so anything that compromises concentration is a serious issue.
In this regard, a number of studies have found that certain features of some screen-based texts impair attention and take up space in working memory that is thus not available for comprehension. Live web links, for example, have been found to adversely affect comprehension (even when they’re never clicked on), probably because the highlighted links call to our stimulus-driven attention system and offer a choice (click or don’t click), and each of those choices distracts from maintaining in working memory the thread of meaning being presented by the core text. Other features of many web pages that can negatively impact reading comprehension are videos, audio clips, and ads. The conclusion is that students in general concentrate better when reading a paper copy as compared to hypertext ( De Stefano and LeFevre,2007).
This is not to say that all hypertext features cause a net loss of comprehension. There is evidence that linked definitions of challenging terms, notes functions, and a search function, when available, can actually help students retain focus and process the text
A Book in the Hand is Worth Two on the Screen?
Another aspect of the reading experience that should be considered has to do with how easy (or difficult) it is to navigate around a text. A book has a certain physicality as compared to an e-book. People report anecdotally that, when trying to locate a piece of information previously read in a physical book, they often remember where in the text the material appeared. With a physical book, one has a left-hand page, a right-hand page, and eight corners on a two-page spread. A reader often remembers, “It was on the left-hand page, near the bottom.” Also, one can see and feel how many pages have been read and how many are yet to read with a physical book. In an e-book, none of these spatial markers exist, which makes going back to find something previously read much harder in an e-book.
One study that looked into such issues was conducted by Anne Mangen and colleagues in Norway. In this study, 72 10th grade students of similar reading ability were divided into two groups. One group read a narrative and an expository text on paper, while the other group read the same texts on 15-inch LCD screens. The students were then given open book multiple-choice and short answer quizzes over the texts. Students who read the paper versions of the texts scored significantly higher on the tests than those who read the screen versions.
The researchers observed that those using screens had more difficulty navigating the texts to find answers, as they could only scroll through the texts or click through them one section at a time. Comparitively, those using paper texts could hold the entire text in their hands at once and easily flip from one section of the text to another ( Mangen ,Walgermo,& Bronnick,2013)
A matter of choice
One study conducted by reading researcher Elizabeth Dobler (2015) suggests people prefer being given a choice between an e-textbook and a paper copy (when both versions of the text are available, obviously). In her study, she taught pre-service teachers how to better navigate and read using an e-textbook version of the class text. Some subjects, following this instruction, found the extra text features to be beneficial for learning, while others found the e-textbook distracting and opted for the hard copy.
The majority of research studies looking into people’s preferences when it comes to reading find that most people still prefer reading on paper to reading on screen. In a 2011 survey of graduate students at National Taiwan University, the majority of students surveyed said that they preferred to browse the first few paragraphs of articles online, then print the text off for deeper reading (Jabr, 2013). In her recent book, Words Onscreen: The Fate of Reading in a Digital World, linguistics professor Naomi Baron explains how she conducted a survey of the reading preferences of over 300 students in the U.S., Japan, Slovakia, and Germany. She found that 92% of students surveyed, when given the choice between reading a text as a hard copy, or on a variety of screens (desktops, laptops, smartphones, and e-readers), said that the hard copy best allowed them to concentrate (Chatfield, 2015). And a 2008 survey of millennials at Salve Regina University in Rhode Island concluded that, “When it comes to reading a book, even they [millennials] prefer good, old-fashioned print” .
GIVING SCREEN READING ITS DUE
Now, none of the above is meant to say that we should stop using screens for reading across the board. That would be ridiculous. Screen reading is here to stay, and the number of screen-reading options is bound to increase.
And screens are great for some reading tasks. Obviously, browsing the Internet for research purposes is the most common screen reading experience. In addition, new forms of text, created specifically to be read online, are popping up. The New York Times, Washington Post, and ESPN have all created highly visual articles that depend entirely on scrolling and could not be read the same way on paper. Infographics have become very popular, and many of them use scrolling in powerful ways. And some knowledge tools such as the interactive Scale of the Universe tool could not be printed out even if you wanted to (this is very cool, so if you haven’t seen it. Some publishers are continuing to investigate the possibilities of creating visually rich nonfiction texts by embedding interactive graphics, maps, timelines, animations, and sound tracks into electronic texts, and some writers are combining their talents with computer programmers to produce interactive fiction and nonfiction texts in which the reader can determine what she reads, hears, and sees next
Screens Equal Stress?
Reading is able to help a person de-stress far quicker that having a cup of tea, taking a brisk walk or listening to music. This is according to the findings of a study that was conducted in the year 2009. As researchers began to measure muscle tension as well as heart rate they uncovered that people began to relax within a mere six minutes of beginning to read. Unfortunately, utilizing a reading device counteracts these findings. Actually, the use of a device may very well increase a person’s level of stress in a negative manner.
The repeated use of electronic devices at night has been linked to increased levels of stress, depression as well as fatigue within young adults. The constant use of technology tends to throw off a person’s circadian rhythms while fostering a shortened attention span and fractured focus. Therefore, instead of offering an escape (or break) from stress, an e-book simply provides us with a breeding ground for additional stress.
Conclusion
Both are a good for reading
Screen usage are more good for reading its easy to carry and save time .
Paper are traditional way of reading
Researched and contributed by: Deepak Awasthi |PGDM-2