Email has improved communication between friends and family. Cell phones have improved safety and communication in families. Store scanners, surveillance equipment, GPS and safety features on automobiles have improved our lives. Laptops in schools allow students to create amazing projects. However, reading a book on a computer may not be one of those improvements.

Norwegian Researchers Say Books Are Better Than Computers Holding a book and turning the pages allows individuals to have an experience with the book. It also helps with attention spans. The scrolling and clicking that is necessary to read a book on a computer is distracting. The reader is more likely to remember information read from a book and less likely to remember if read on a computer screen. Technology does not improve everything in our lives.

Anne Mangen, associate professor at the Center for Reading Research at the University of Stavanger in Norway, believes that the physical appearance of a book offers tranquillity to the reader. "Several experiments in cognitive psychology have shown how a change of physical surroundings has a potentially negative affect on memory. Technology provides for a number of dynamic, mobile and ephemeral forms of learning, but little is known about how such mobility and transience influence the effect of teaching. Learning requires time and mental exertion and the new media do not provide for that," Mangen believes.

[ScienceDaily, December 22, 2008]