on January 19 | in Blog

An interesting read with a different point of view in the Web vs Print debate. Each has their place and advantages over the other but this gives you something to think about before moving more of your marketing and promotional material into the digital world.

Print Communication >> Text, paper, pixels and the brain
How much of your message is getting through to your target audience? Do computer screens adequately recreate the experience of reading on paper?

Compared with paper, it appears that screens may drain more of our mental resources while we are reading and make it a little harder to remember what we read when we are done. Research indicates that modern screens and e-readers fail to adequately recreate certain tactile experiences of reading on paper and, more importantly, prevent people from navigating long texts in an intuitive and satisfying way. In turn, such navigational difficulties may subtly inhibit reading comprehension.

The process of reading transmitted light vs reflective light is processed in different regions of the visual cortex. Reading accesses both the visual ability and the kinaesthetic/hand abilities regions of the brain. The pixelated microsecond flashes on an electronic device, or computer, do not engage the many regions of the brain devoted to hand/speech as does print in a hand-held book.

People’s attitudes toward different kinds of media also affect comprehension. Many people approach computers with a state of mind less conducive to learning than the one they bring to paper thus affecting their level of comprehension. Hence the questions “is your message getting through to your target audience?”

An obvious difference between PC screens and paper is that paper is material. You can feel the weight, texture and thickness of a pamphlet or a book. You can see where is begins and ends. You can quickly leaf through the pages with your fingers.

This perceptible, direct experience gives you a mental map of the entire text. The brain has an easier task when you can touch, as well as see. This mental pay is particularly important if the text is long, requiring quicker navigation. You need to be able to leaf back and forth through different parts of the text to see, review and comprehend relationships and contexts.

This physical experience is nearly absent when reading on a screen. You can only see a page or two at a time, you experience the length of a text on a screen by using the scrollbar, the page number or other abstract and indirect markers. Although tablets let you turn pages with a flick of the finger, your fingers only glide along smooth glass which is less tactile than turning a page. The text and surface no longer comprise a tangible unit.

Comprehension is not the only thing that suffers. Paper also seems to communicate more to our emotions than a screen does. A comparison between reading a short narrative text on an iPad with reading it on paper resulted in the test subjects becoming more deeply involved with the story when reading from paper.

The findings open doors to essential insights with a rather classical bent: Mind and body are interlinked. This age-old understanding is getting increasing attention among neurologists, psychologists and philosophers.

Studies show that our brains don’t work like computers. We don’t sense things than process the sensory perceptions afterwards. We sense and process simultaneously. There is a much greater and closer connection between what we sense and do with our bodies and what we understand.

In conclusion, research suggests that a wholesale shift to digital forms of information presentation is inadvisable. It would be a mistake for us to trade paper books for reading tablets and PC’s based on a blind faith in digital technology.

While websites have their place, print on paper is essential in order to adequately convey your message as well as having the longevity to lead the consumer to your website page.

Sourced from GSM Magazine Issue One

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