The Guardian‘s article Ministry of Justice plan to destroy historical wills is ‘insane’, say experts caught my attention, as the UK government plans to digitize and destroy over 110m wills to save approximately £4.5m per year.
Despite being a software engineer for my entire adult life, I still prefer reading documents physically rather than digitally, and not just books. Annually (often on my birthday) I head to the University of Minnesota‘s Wilson Library and read old newspapers on microfilm. Maps digitized require zooming in to the point where you lose context. I find myself reading articles unintended – or unknown – stumbled into when turning pages, whereas online links don’t provide the same randomness.
An article published in January 2023 came to the conclusion that comprehension is better with print than digital reading. Personally, I’ve always thought the same, especially where the material is more complex or detailed and you’re trying to internalize.
Conclusion: don’t teach an old dog new tricks. I’ll continue to read physical documents as much as I can!
