Technology is increasingly a part of daily life.

Adults are adapting at varying paces while young people seem to embrace it in all its forms.

So, a new article in the November issue of Scientific American, called " Why the Brain Prefers Paper" makes for a provocative discussion.

Writer Ferris Jabr, an associate editor at the journal, focused on the differences in reading a print book or a book on a screen.

In research over two decades, he reports that people often understand and remember text they read on paper better than on a screen.

His research found that screens may inhibit comprehension by preventing people from navigating long texts and that screens can be more taxing physically, like causing eye strain and headaches.

Even preliminary research suggests that so-called digital natives (those raised with digital media) are more likely to recall the gist of a story when they read it on paper because enhanced e-books and e-readers themselves are too distracting, Jabr found.

Before 1992, people read stories and articles on screens more slowly and remembered less about them, but since technology has improved, results are more mixed.

Now, Jabr wrote, that "although most people still prefer paper -- especially when they need to concentrate for a long time -- attitudes are changing as tablets and e-reading technology improve and as reading digital texts for facts and fun becomes more common."

Still, despite increasingly popular technology, he concluded that "paper still has advantages over screens as a reading medium."

Researchers found that the human brain may perceive a text as a kind of physical landscape Jabr wrote, and digital devices could inhibit people from mapping the journey in their mind.

In an experiment in Sweden, Jabr wrote, "people who took a reading comprehension test on a computer scored lower and reported higher levels of stress and tiredness than people who completed it on paper."

Researchers think that the act of scrolling, which requires a reader to focus on the content and how it is moving on the screen, drains more mental resources, Jabr wrote.

"Even when studies find few differences in reading comprehension between screens and paper, screen readers may not remember a text as thoroughly in the long run."

Danbury Deputy Superintendent of Schools William Glass thinks society is on the "crest of a wave" with changes in how information is disseminated and absorbed.

"I don't think books are going away, but I do think for digital natives, this is their world. I think as time goes on and more and more people move to technology, our brain will change and this will be the preferred learning style," Glass said. "I think technology will push the human mind to change at a faster rate, even our perception of how we take in information. We will see a physiological modification in how we absorb knowledge."

Jabr agreed with Glass that over time, discrepancies in reading comprehension between paper and screens may shrink as attitudes change, especially for young people who don't have a bias that older generations might.

And University of San Francisco professor Jim Taylor wrote for a column in Huffington Post that as with advances throughout history, the technology that is available "determines how our brains develop."

Still, for young people, Jabr found that the latest research suggests that "substituting paper at an early age has disadvantages that should not be ignored."

And he noted research in New York City, where young children remembered more details from stories they read on paper than on e-books.

Taylor warned parents.

"The bottom line is that too much screen time and not enough other activities, such as reading, playing games and good old unstructured and imaginative play will result in your children having their brains wired in ways that may make them less, not more, prepared to thrive in this crazy new world of technology."

I still read books in print. I love the feel of the paper, the simple act of page turning and the nimble return to previous passages.

And I still print out longer articles from the Internet rather than reading them on the screen.

Nevertheless, changes and improvements to technology will affect us all.

It will be a interesting journey that's already underway in the newspaper industry.; 203-731-3333