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Does reading on screen beat paper?
By Rhymer Rigby, FT WORKING SMARTER columnist
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American Airlines completed its transition to “paperless cockpits” this year, after giving pilots iPads in place of the 3,000-plus pages of documents and manuals they used to carry.
At professional services group PwC, meanwhile, staff must walk to a printer and enter a passcode to produce their hard copy – an extra step that was designed to cut the waste created by uncollected printouts.
If the paperless workplace is finally arriving, as these examples suggest, it is worth asking whether there is a difference between reading on screens and on paper – and whether all screens are created equal.
Anne Mangen, an associate professor at the University of Stavanger in Norway who specialises in reading, says the answer depends on the complexity of the content and the type of screen.
For skimming a short message, the medium may not matter, adds Maryanne Wolf, director of the Center for Reading and Language Research at Tufts University in the US.
But a screen is not necessarily best suited to “deep” reading, where the aim is to pick up more insight and come up with novel thoughts. In this situation, she says: “Paper seems to offer some advantages.”
This fits with what most people would say intuitively – that they would be happy reading a few articles on their iPhone, but would not want to read a long report on it.
However, there are other factors too. An obvious one is your environment: in low light an iPad may be a good choice, while in bright sunlight an e-ink Kindle or paper will carry the day. There is also your own history of screens – the more you have used them the more chance there is that you like them. Even so, studies suggest some “digital natives” sometimes do better with paper.
The “feel” of what you are reading can be a surprisingly important consideration too. A chunky report lands on your desk with an authoritative thump whereas a PDF does not.
People may absorb the intimidating printed report more effectively because its heft primes them to work harder. “There are some indications that people approach paper with different expectations,” says Prof Mangen.
Paper’s other great plus is that it allows very natural note-taking. Of course, electronic devices also allow annotation. But Prof Mangen says they can be restrictive: “When people make notes on paper, it’s not about picking choices from a [computer] template. They use their own systems.”
They may also have a more intuitive feel for where important passages are in a paper document.
A dash of pragmatism is necessary. If it is a choice between reading something on a smartphone and not reading it all then just squint and bear it.
But if you really need to immerse yourself, paper may still be best. “My personal feeling is that paper is better for deep, focused reading, especially if you grew up with it,” says Prof Wolf.
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