Tech gets a bad rap for being endlessly distracting (which explains how you ended up 31 weeks deep on your friend’s ex-boyfriend’s Instagram), but a new study found that if you’re looking to focus, screens are actually better than physical books. But, of course, there are a few caveats. First, this was a relatively small study (300 participants) on college-age students. Second, while the students who read on laptops were better at answering concrete comprehension questions, the students who read the same passage on paper aced the ones that required abstract thinking.
So if you’re memorizing facts for an exam or you need to remember bullet points for a presentation at work, you’re probably OK reading them on your computer. But if you’re reading fiction or anything that requires a little imagination, you’re better off sticking to a hard copy.
(h/t Psychology Today)
