The Future of Reading May Be Paper
Is the Handwriting on the Wall for Paper Books?
Paper books are facing extinction. Bookstores are disappearing at an alarming rate; Borders is toast, there are only 6 Barnes and Nobles stores left in Manhattan, and none left in San Francisco. Remaining bookstores sell fewer books, focus on best sellers, and turn to offering gifts and accessories to supplement their falling revenue. From this perspective, it looks like paper books are going the way of the Dodo.
So findings from a recent Pew Internet survey might surprise you.
According to the survey report, entitled “E-Reading Rises as Device Ownership Jumps,” 70% of Americans read a paper book in 2013. And the typical American read an average (median) of 5 books during the same time period. While the percentage of readers of e-books did increase from 28% from 23% during 2013, only 4% read e-books exclusively. And it’s not due to a lack of e-reader devices, since 52% of Americans now own an e-reader or tablet capable of displaying an e-book, according to the survey. The bottom line is that people are still reading paper books, and in large quantities.
That’s not all. A study to be published in the journal College & Research Libraries entitled, “Student Reading Practices in Print and Electronic Media,” finds that for college students, paper is “nearly always used for academic reading” even when the original texts were delivered in digital form. According to the study, “students tend to use print for academic and long-form reading and to engage with it more deeply.”
So paper may not be going anywhere after all. Despite all the advantages of e-books (see below), people are still primarily reading paper books. Why is that? Is there some unique quality intrinsic in paper that makes it particularly suitable for consuming written information, or is it simply reluctance to adopt new technology? A quick comparison of paper versus e-books will help explain what’s going on.
What’s So Special about Paper?
Abigail Sellen, a Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research UK, in her book “The Myth of the Paperless Office” identifies four characteristics of paper that make it uniquely suitable for reading:
1. Paper helps us navigate through documents
2. Paper facilitates the cross-referencing of more than one document at a time
3. Paper allows us to annotate documents easily
4. Paper allows the interweaving of reading and writing
From this list, it’s immediately apparent why paper remains so popular with college students. Referencing more than one document at once and interweaving reading and writing are common academic activities. But what about other types of reading, like reading for pleasure? Here, the advantages of paper aren’t so clear.
In fact, paper books pale compared to e-book in three areas: delivery time, storage size, and acquisition cost. Specifically, it’s much easier to download the three volumes of the Divergent trilogy as e-books rather than driving over to the store and buying them, or ordering them online. Plus the e-book does not take up shelf space and it’s cheaper than its paper cousin. While these advantages potentially appeal to many people, travelers and commuters gain the most from the move to e-books. Their ability to download new titles and read them on the go, without having to lug around heavy books is a big plus. Which is why you see so many commuters reading e-books on planes, trains, and buses. With all this going for e-books, it’s surprising we don’t see higher adoption. There must be something else at work.
What’s Wrong with E-Books?
Turns out, what’s at work is the brain. Studies have shown that reading from computer screens interferes with the cognition needed to process information. For example, a number of studies found that students’ ability to process written information from computer screens is impaired when compared to reading from paper. A 2012 study, published in the International Journal of Educational Research, found that “students who read texts in print scored significantly better on reading comprehension test than students who read the texts digitally.” While the study compared reading text on a computer vs. paper texts, the authors’ explanations for the differences in comprehension levels between paper and digital reading are equally-applicable to e-readers:
· Scrolling – moving text on a screen as we read it, interferes with comprehension
· Disrupted mental maps – the text layout on a paper page provides cues for text memory and recall. When reading text on an e-reader, it is hard to link text to a particular spot on a page. Plus, on an e-reader, you only see one page at a time; so it’s difficult to get a sense of where you are in the book. This digital ‘vertigo’ interferes with cognition.
· Visual ergonomics – some e-readers like the iPad, use LCD screens which cause visual fatigue and lead to reduced levels of comprehension. (This is not a problem for e-readers that use electronic ink, such as the Kindle, which merely reflect light, like paper.)
The diminished level of comprehension from screen-read text helps explain why people aren’t using them for deep reading.
All Books Are Not Created Equal
Taking into account the pros and cons of paper and e-readers, it’s now apparent why some types of reading are popular on e-readers while others are best left to paper.
Situations where it is important to access information quickly, digest it, and move on to the next item, are particularly suited to e-reading. The e-reader’s ability to access information via the Internet and display it in real-time makes it perfect for getting news, downloading email, and presenting light reading material like novels. On the other hand, contemplative deep reading is better done with paper because reading from paper improves comprehension and retention, with less fatigue. This may explain why the Amazon’s twenty top e-books for 2013 were all fictional novels whereas the majority of the top 20 print books were non-fiction.
There are other reasons for the popularity of e-novels. Reading a novel is a linear process; you start at the beginning and read until you finish. How often do you search for information in a novel or need to consult an index? Plus, how often do you re-read a novel once you finish it? Having a digital copy is perfect. It’s cheaper, it doesn’t take up space, and it’s instantly disposable.
On the other hand, when you are reading a textbook or other non-fiction, the power to search for information, annotate text, and take notes in the margins, helps readers absorb and retain information. All these tasks are easier to accomplish with paper…at least so far. And this, at least partially, explains the enduring popularity of paper.
What Lies Ahead?
While differences between paper reading and e-reading are clear today, it remains to be seen if we are in the midst of a transitional stage from paper to digital, or if paper books will retain a place on our shelves. Are the cognitive limitations associated with e-reading limited to the older generations that grew up with paper books and find it hard to transition? Or will digital technology evolve to incorporate some of the intrinsically-human elements of paper?
I think it’s safe to say the preference for paper over e-books is not strictly a generational phenomenon. While younger people are more comfortable with consuming information via digital sources, the underpinnings of cognitive processes are not tightly-coupled to age groups. This is borne out by the fact that ongoing studies of college students continue to show a preference for paper reading when it comes to textbooks, while digital is preferred for light reading like email, news, and fiction.
Technology on the other hand continues to improve. For example, the Kindle eliminates one of the drawbacks of e-readers by using passive electronic ink (e-ink), rather than a LCD screen. While less appropriate for displaying video or other media, e-ink eliminates the visual fatigue associated with reading from computer screens. Also, improved navigational techniques which allow readers to build mental maps of their content are evolving. Experiments with interactive books that allow readers to access external resources are also an interesting development, although it’s not at all clear if distractions introduced by hopping from one information source to another improves the reading experience or merely add to information overload.
When the dust settles, there will surely be more digital e-books and fewer paper ones. But there will continue to be a place for paper books for the foreseeable future. For example, e-books won’t replace coffee table books anytime soon. Besides, nobody has yet figured out how to impress their friends with a digital bookshelf of Gibbon’s “The History and Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire” in the glory of all its six volumes. Now that will be a site to behold.