Carrie Farmer
Central High School
May 14th, 2024
In the past few decades, the popularity of digital media has risen, especially so because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Everything from shopping to communicating has become digital, and along with the popularity of such digital media, even education has become more digital-based. According to a study, 98% of households with children aged 8 and under have mobile devices (López-Escribano, Carmen et al., 2021). Children have more exposure to digital content and spend more time digitally reading. Despite being common, however, reading digitally negatively affects children’s comprehension skills.
One aspect of reading digitally is digital text, which lacks the physical properties of paper. This makes it difficult to annotate the text, thus decreasing the engagement children have with the text (Dixon, 2023). Without annotation, such as highlighting and underlining keywords as you read, active reading is nearly impossible. The lack of physical properties also makes linking your memory to how far you’ve read the page or book difficult, while this type of information retention is possible with print reading (Pomeroy, 2024). Skimming through pages and setting the words as information becomes harder and requires cognitive effort with digital text because once the text is off the screen, “it’s gone, out of sight and out of mind” (Dixon, 2023). Digital text leads to less interaction compared to print, an alternative to reading digitally.
The language choice of digital text further influences children unfavorably. Digital media, such as blogs and social media, typically have a lower linguistic quality of text compared to print reading. For example, there is a “prevalence of contractions, abbreviations, and colloquial expressions” (Han, 2024), which leads to informal and shorter content. The simple language of digital text signifies less comprehension and focus needed for children to understand the text, despite the fact that children have not fully mastered the basics of vocabulary and grammar (Pomeroy, 2024).
In addition, digital reading is usually done through the small screens of smartphones and tablets. The screen time may lead to issues with children’s eyes, especially because they are still developing. One example is eye fatigue, which happens when people squint to see their screens and strain their muscles. This causes difficulty concentrating and headaches. Another example is dry eye syndrome. When children look at their screens, they tend to forget to blink. This leads to dry eyes, which feel uncomfortable and may make reading agonizing. When the screen time extends, it can also lead to blurred vision, which occurs when the eyes stay focused on the screen for long periods of time (AuYeung, 2022). When children have optical issues that lead to concentration difficulties, comprehension becomes more difficult.
Reading digitally also harms children because of cognitive load. As Dixton (2023) explains, it “is the amount of mental energy you are using to perform a task.” The more you try to multitask, the higher cognitive load is. Reading digitally is typically done on devices that have access to the internet. Those devices are “a source of extraneous cognitive load” (Dixon, 2023), and they have a lot of information that is irrelevant to what students are reading. That information places demands on people’s working memory, and it can cause overstimulation, which will lead to children learning how to be distracted rather than gaining comprehension skills (Heubeck et al., 2024). Even when children are opening a browser with only the text they want to read, they are only a click away from entertainment like social media and games. Some studies show that people tend to check their social media while reading, and since younger people have less impulse control, they may tend to check even more so (Pomeroy, 2024). Even without notifications, a psychological pull remains (Dickinson, 2022). Reducing the extraneous load, or in other words, replacing digital reading, will help children comprehend text better.
Children reading digitally results in reading without physical properties of paper, consuming text of low linguistic quality, putting a burden on their eyes, and overloading their mental capacity. All of these result in some way or another with negative impact on children’s comprehension skills, especially because children’s brains are still developing. While reducing the time children spend consuming digital texts for educational purposes will be difficult, children should be provided with printed material to not further deteriorate their comprehension skills.
Word count: 724
References
AuYeung, C. (2022, August 5). How Can Prolonged Screen Time Affect Your Child's Vision? Eyes On Norbeck. Retrieved May 8, 2024.
Dickinson, K. (2022, August 3). Master your digital distractions (without a digital detox). Big Think. Retrieved May 8, 2024.
Dixon, T. (2023, January 30). Digital vs. Print Reading: Which one's better? | IB Psychology. Themantic Education. Retrieved May 6, 2024.
Han, Yuxuan. (2024). The Impact of Digital Media on Language Styles and Communication Methods Based on Text, Image, and Video Forms. Lecture Notes in Education Psychology and Public Media. 40. 210-218.
Heubeck, E., Baker, L., & Schwartz, S. (2024, January 15). Is Too Much Screen Time, Too Early, Hindering Reading Comprehension? Education Week. Retrieved May 8, 2024.
López-Escribano, C., Valverde-Montesino, S., & García-Ortega, V. (2021). The Impact of E-Book Reading on Young Children's Emergent Literacy Skills: An Analytical Review. International journal of environmental research and public health, 18(12), 6510.
Pomeroy, R. (2024, January 10). The loss of deep reading: How digital texts impact kids' comprehension skills. Big Think. Retrieved May 6, 2024.