Have you ever found yourself discussing children’s reading behaviour and got stuck in arguing for or against reading digitally? If this is the case, then this article is for you.
Is it better for children (and adults) to read printed or digital books? Is there even one way that is better? In this article I will introduce and discuss select academic articles and studies that address digital reading. This article will help you make your own informed decision about which mode of reading is preferable.
Often, discussions about reading hinge on the fact that children and young people’s reading comprehension skills are decreasing. Not only teachers and parents of young people are concerned with this development but university professors lament the change in their students’ reading abilities as well (Kotsko, 2024; McMurtrie, 2024). Some people see the root of these problems in reading education as discussed in Emily Hanford’s US-American podcast Sold a Story. Other arguments build on the changes in young people’s media consumption that has shifted to favouring digital media over print media. This is discussed in a plethora of academic articles and scientific studies. The theoretical perspectives range from literary and educational to the fields of cognitive science (Furenes et al., 2021; Hillesund et al., 2022) and socioeconomic studies (Jang et al., 2023; Peras et al., 2023). I will summarise some studies and articles I found in my research. I have focussed primarily on US-American sources due to accessibility, but I have also found some articles by non-American scholars. This highlights that the discussion is globally relevant.
In their meta-analysis of different studies, Furenes et al, (2021) find that reading digitally, for example digital picturebooks can lead to cognitive overload and therefore decrease the reading comprehension of children. This means that the additional functions of the digital text overstimulate the reader and distract from the meaning-making process, which leads to decreased reading comprehension. This is often due to the additional features the digital media can offer, such as voice-overs or highlighting functions. The study found, however, that otherwise the reading comprehension is similar between digital and analogue reading.
In our increasingly digital world it is essential for young readers to learn skills of digital media literacy. This means that young readers ought to familiarise themselves with different digital mediums that convey stories, either fictional or factual. Learn more about this in Amanda’s article on critical literacy.
Reading digitally allows for multimodal reading experience that can enhance comprehension and critical engagement with the text (de-la-Peña et al., 2024). This refers for example to texts that are supplemented by auditory or visual information, which can help illustrate expository texts. Jang et al (2023) find in their study that reading digitally can help engaged readers to increase their reading achievement. They state that engaged reading is the prerequisite for digital reading to enhance the academic resilience of young readers. This means that they are able to comprehend and engage with texts in a more nuanced way.
To learn more about the potential of one particular format of digital media read Mathilde’s article on digital picturebooks. She discusses the advantages and challenges of this medium that generally aimed at children between the ages three and eight.
Cervetti and Pearson (2023) discuss different roles of the adolescent reader in their article and propose the additional role of the text actor to achieve critical and analytical text comprehension. This is applied both to analogue and digital media.
As you can see from the sources I have found – opinions are fractured and depended on many different factors. There is no clear right or wrong in this debate because reading and literacy are such diverse and multifaceted activities that manifest themselves differently for every reader.
Personally, I have a divided opinion. On the one hand I strongly support reading physical books. This belief is not based on educational principles but mainly on my personal preference and bibliophilia. I also feel like I comprehend and remember a text differently when I read it on paper. I have found, however, that I greatly appreciate the benefits of reading digitally when researching or working with expository texts. I often use the search function, highlight text passages, or copy quotations into my digital notes. From that perspective I prefer reading digitally. I also agree with Amanda’s statements that digital literacy is crucial in today’s society. I believe that young people ought to be taught how to read analogue as well as digital texts comprehensively.
Now that you have read all of these statements, has your opinion changed? Do you feel more secure in your discussion of modes of reading? Do let us know in the comments!
Bibliography
- Cervetti, G. N., & Pearson, P. D. (2023). Reading comprehension in troubled times. In R. J. Tierney, F. Rizvi, & K. Ercikan (Eds.), International Encyclopedia of Education (Fourth Edition) (pp. 319–329). Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-818630-5.07046-9
- de-la-Peña, C., Chaves-Yuste, B., & Luque-Rojas, M.-J. (2024). Digital Reading Comprehension: Multimodal and Monomodal Inputs under Debate. Reading Psychology, 45(5), 500–518. https://doi.org/10.1080/02702711.2024.2339809
- Furenes, M. I., Kucirkova, N., & Bus, A. G. (2021). A Comparison of Children’s Reading on Paper Versus Screen: A Meta-Analysis. Review of Educational Research, 91(4), 483–517. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654321998074
- Hanford, E. (n.d.). Sold a Story: How Teaching Kids to Read Went So Wrong [Broadcast]. Retrieved 9 August 2025, from https://features.apmreports.org/sold-a-story/
- Hillesund, T., Schilhab, T., & Mangen, A. (2022). Text Materialities, Affordances, and the Embodied Turn in the Study of Reading. Frontiers in Psychology, 13. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.827058
- Jang, E., Seo, Y. S., & Brutt-Griffler, J. (2023). Building Academic Resilience in Literacy: Digital Reading Practices and Motivational and Cognitive Engagement. Reading Research Quarterly, 58(1), 160–176. https://doi.org/10.1002/rrq.486
- Kotsko, A. (2024, February 11). The Loss of Things I Took for Granted. Slate. https://slate.com/human-interest/2024/02/literacy-crisis-reading-comprehension-college.html
- McMurtrie, B. (2024, May 9). Is This the End of Reading? The Chronicle of Higher Education. https://www.chronicle.com/article/is-this-the-end-of-reading
- Peras, I., Klemenčič Mirazchiyski, E., Japelj Pavešić, B., & Mekiš Recek, Ž. (2023). Digital versus Paper Reading: A Systematic Literature Review on Contemporary Gaps According to Gender, Socioeconomic Status, and Rurality. European Journal of Investigation in Health, Psychology and Education, 13(10), Article 10. https://doi.org/10.3390/ejihpe13100142
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