So exactly how often does the average person read social media texts on paper?
Reading print improves comprehension far more than looking at digital text, say researchers. A study from the University of Valencia found that print reading could boost skills by six to eight times more than digital reading
Here’s the problem: The Guardian‘s headline is somewhat at odds with the detail of the post.
The biggest issue here is that we are not comparing like with like. Give two equally-competent people the same text, one on screen with no other screen distractions, and one on paper, and my guess is there will be no meaningful difference.
But right from the opening paragraphs the report is telling is the real issue:
“This may be because the ‘linguistic quality of digital texts tends to be lower than that traditionally found in printed texts. Text on social media, for example, may be conversational and lack complex syntax and reasoning.'”
So exactly how often does the average person read social media texts on paper?
The comparison is a complete nonsense.
A meaningful evaluation would be to give to equally-competent people a printed text and the same text on an e-reading device with no online distractions, and then assess them.
