Print considered more trustworthy, popular & relaxing than digital

Another day and what feels like another news story showing print to be more trustworthy and influential than digital. This time the article we came across was on the ProPrint website (so you may be forgiven for initially thinking the story was biased!), but it uses statistics gathered from a Two Sides survey that questioned over 500 UK and 1,000 US consumers on their preferences for either print or digital.

It seems that the majority – 84% – of UK respondents stated they prefer print as a form of communication between brands or companies and themselves, as they tend to retain information better from print than from digital messages. In contrast, 55% said they retain information better reading messages on a computer screen, and 41% felt the same about e-readers. Only 31% said they remember information best when reading it from a smartphone.

It was also discovered that the majority of consumers find print a more relaxing medium; 79% said they felt calm when reading printed words, but 44% felt the same about reading off computer screens. This percentage continued to decrease for e-readers (33%) and smartphones (23%). But along with being more relaxing, print is also less distracting – 21% of respondents said they were easily distracted when reading on paper, and yet nearly two-thirds (65%) of those reading on a smartphone said the same.

All in all, if given the choice 78% of respondents said they would choose print over digital, compared to 30% who said they would choose a computer screen, 24% who chose an e-reader and a minimal 17% who chose a smartphone.

Some cynics may argue that age plays a role in what is considered the most popular medium – but the survey also found there to be little difference in opinion between those aged 18-24; 25-34; 35-44; 45-64; and those aged 64 and over.

Did you expect print to continue to hold such influence in today’s digitised market?