The emergence of digital publications, whether they be magazines, books, research journals or otherwise, took the world by storm. Having the option of reading digital content as opposed to print, allowed us to access knowledge and carry entire libraries around in devices small enough to fit in your hand. This would seem to be a huge step forward when it comes to reading in general, as it makes a great deal more content accessible to more people. We are no longer tied to the physical limitations of print publications in terms of where we can access them and how many different publications we can have at our fingertips at one time.
Digital vs. Print
However, if something seems too good to be true, it likely is too good to be true. The advantages gained with the availability of digital content come with their own set of disadvantages. For one, numerous studies have been done on the level of reading comprehension and the ability to retain that information when reading print versus digital content. Reading print as opposed to digital has been shown to result in far higher levels of reading comprehension and information retention. This is particularly true when it comes to content dealing with more complex subjects, such as medical aesthetics. If you want to truly comprehend and learn from the content you are reading, print has been demonstrated to be a far superior medium than digital.
The other problem that comes with reading digital content is the endless distractions that can interrupt you while you're trying to read on your computer, ipad, phone, etc. These can make it nearly impossible to get through a single article without something distracting you from reading at least once. What with email, texts, social media and numerous other digital distractions demanding your attention, being able to actually focus on a piece of writing well enough to really comprehend it can start to seem impossible. This has actually led to consumers in general becoming tired of what is being referred to as "the digital deluge," so much so that magazine print readership has been steadily rising for the past year, leading some consumer magazines to revive the print versions of their publications that had been relegated to digital formats.
With the digital age upon us it can be tricky to decipher which format is right for you, so we asked which you prefer: print or digital magazines?
In our recent survey which asked, Do you prefer print or digital magazines? 88% of readers said they prefer print and 12% of readers said they prefer digital.
Whether you prefer to read print or digital magazines, you can find out how to access both print and digital versions of MedEsthetics below, so you can choose which works best for you.
Check back every Tuesday for a new one-click survey.
We'll reveal the answers in next week's MedEsthetics newsletter.
