What's the Difference Between Paper and Digital? The Bigger Picture
In the Media
If you are reading an article just to get the facts, are you better off reading it online or printing the article? Or does it really matter? Geoff Kaufman, assistant professor in the Human-Computer Interaction Institute and a previous postdoctoral researcher at the TiltFactor (where the research was conducted), says it does.
Healthline recently published an article reviewing his research on the brain and how it can interpret information differently based on the medium. When we read using a digital device, like a tablet or our phones, Kaufman says the brain does a better job of remember the here and now information.
Likewise, when we're consuming information on good old fashion paper, we have a better understanding of the abstract themes and theories of the story.
"When you're reading something on a digital device, you zero in on the immediate details and you may not be able to see the forest from the trees," said Kaufman.
To read the full article, including some hypotheses on what a future of digital reading might encompass, visit "Digital Reading Can Cause You to Miss the Bigger Picture" on Healthline.