The Breadth and Depth of E-reading and Paper-reading

The present study investigated the differences between e-reading and paper-reading in their breadth and depth. Our results showed that (1) breadth and depth of reading were both greater in e-reading than in paper-reading; (2) possession of a tablet tended to facilitate breadth of e-reading; (3) breadth of e-reading was greater than breadth of paper-reading for news, magazines, and others, but not for novels; (4) depth of e-reading was greater than depth of paper-reading for novels, but the reverse was true for news and magazines; (5) people tended to read research articles, books and magazines on paper, but news and others on digital devices; (6) people tended to read longer on paper than on digital devices, but the percentage of contents they could remember was no different between e-reading and paper-reading. We conclude that modern readers have become accustomed to e-reading and can do it more efficiently than paper-reading.