We're beginning to understand how digital devices affect literacy – but don't assume that paper is always better than screens

CAN gadgets help to educate young people? Many would say yes: digital literacy is seen as key to a modern upbringing, and screens are being introduced at ever earlier ages. But to others, they’re potentially harmful distractions. There are schools that frown on kids toting tablets and universities that ban laptops from lecture theatres.

Many of those who eschew these gadgets have been swayed not by facts and research, but by opinion and experience – teachers concerned that tech-addled kids lack communications skills and focus, for example. That doesn’t mean their views should be discounted: rather, it means the research is sorely needed.

Such studies are now under way, although given that phones and tablets are already an integral part of our lives, the researchers are mostly playing catch-up. Early findings suggest screens can indeed affect the ways we read and write (see “Goodbye, paper: What we miss when we read on screen“). The real question is: does that matter?

The same researchers who have identified these effects are quick to point out they are very specific. A gripping yarn on an e-reader may be a perfect fit; a highbrow tome on a phone, maybe not. But that doesn’t make digital reading a problem per se. And gadgets’ shortcomings must be weighed against their advantages: portability, economy, access to the world’s knowledge and so on.


Much-publicised worries about young brains becoming wired up differently are under-researched too. Even if this does happen, it’s not clear any changes are deleterious. And in some cases, there may be simple solutions, such as making kids write with styluses rather than keyboards.

That’s not to say we shouldn’t carefully consider how, when and why children use technology. Screens aren’t going away any time soon, and they raise issues that go far beyond literacy. But our approach to their use should not be in thrall to yesterday’s values. Only when we know precisely what screens do to us will we know precisely what we should do with them.

This article appeared in print under the headline “Screening for problems”