Do you agree or disagree with the following statement?
Reading paper materials is better than watching electronic devices to gain information.
It is of great importance to weigh whether paper or electronic devices is better because students need to maximize their gain of information. In my opinion, paper materials surpass electronic devices in terms of obtaining informative content. I feel this way for two reasons, which I will thoroughly explore in the following essay.
First and foremost, information on paper is much more detailed than information on electronic devices. This is because information on electronic devices is reproduced from the information in paper materials, such as published research papers, so it tends to contain summaries rather than explanations. On the other hand, paper materials display rigor of information including descriptions, explanations, and examples, hence the reader will acquire much more information. My own experience is a compelling example of this. As I was studying for my chemistry exam on chemical bonding, I first watched videos on Youtube because I did not want to read. However, the videos only described the types of chemical bonding - covalent, ionic and metallic - without explaining their causes. When I encountered a question on the reason behind ionic bonding on the test, I panicked and received a terrible score. This example demonstrates the availability of much denser information in paper materials, which will be better for attaining information.
Last but not least, paper materials allow one to highlight and take notes on them. This is beneficial for reinforcing understanding of the material, which will lead to long-term storing of the memory, in other words, more 'actual gain' of information. Meanwhile, watching electronic devices does not allow one to do so and therefore it is not effective for earning information. An experiment conducted by a well-respected researcher in Psychology, Albert Van Rooyen, can attest this claim. He divided the participants into two groups and gave one group a set of videos and the other group a set of printed materials about a topic in biology, natural selection. Consequently, he asked the participants to take a test on the topic and the results showed that the group that was shown paper materials excelled on the test while the other group could not recall appropriate information for the questions. This research shows that paper materials are effective for virtually storing information.
In conclusion, reading paper materials is far better than watching electronic devices to procure information. This is because paper materials have a lot more detailed information and allow the reader to successfully memorize it. It seems that students must read paper materials instead of watching electronic devices from now on.