Today we're talking about paper scriptures versus digital- the pros and cons of each so that you can decide what is best for your personal scripture study. I'm Cindy Young. Thanks for being here with me today on Primarily Scripture. Okay, so let's talk about paper scriptures first. If you grew up in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, especially in the United States, then like me, you might have gotten your very own set of paper for scriptures when you got baptized. And because the Gospel Library app didn't even come out until like, I don't know, 2010, I think... this is what adults remember using- we used paper scriptures. And if you're old like me, then you've been using paper scriptures for a very, very long time. As our world gets increasingly digital, did you know that there are a lot of people who have studied this question of paper versus digital, and which one is best? I'm gonna include links in the episode description so that you can look up the sources I'm using. But studies have shown that reading printed material- an actual book or a piece of paper- helps you to remember, and it helps you to build a stronger connection with what you're reading. And a lot of that is because it's something that you can actually feel and touch. You can feel how heavy the book is. More of your senses are engaged and that helps you to connect and remember. The other thing that it helps you do is that you have better reading comprehension. You will understand more when you're reading paper scriptures. You'll get a better understanding of the message, how it connects to you, how it connects to other gospel principles. It's so important! And- I love this one. It actually uses less brain power. So you're getting more out of it with less brain power. So you're not going to get as fatigued and tired when you're reading paper, versus when you're reading digital. When you're reading on a screen, it's much easier to have distractions, right? We've all got notifications that pop up, other apps, and we're conditioned to just scroll, scroll, scroll, and keep going, and get through as much as possible, which is not the goal when we're studying the scriptures; we want to dive in and get that good understanding. So if we go just by those studies, then paper scriptures are far and away the better choice. And these are exactly the reasons why I hesitated to use digital scriptures for

because I experienced all those things that I just talked about. I knew that I could better connect with and remember and find the messages in the scriptures when I used my paper scriptures. For instance, many times I'd be trying to remember something that I read, and I would think, okay, I know when I was in the scriptures I was like this far in, and I could remember what it feels like to be this far in. And then I would remember it was on the right side of the page. And what I read was near the bottom, and I remember marking it in green, and I wrote a note in the bottom margin. So then I could flip through my scriptures at about that spot, and my body remembered what it felt like and what it looked like, and it was so much easier for me to find it. And in a very real sense, you can pick up the scriptures and just flip through it, right? You can look and see what's there and find those notes, find those places you marked. Whereas flipping through on a screen just means scrolling like this, and it all looks the same, and it all just scrolls past. Because every screen looks very much the same in digital scriptures, even when they're marked, because digital underlining is just this perfect underlining of words, and you don't get those subtle variations and nuances that come with a hand marked passage. For all these reasons, paper scriptures were all I used for a very long time. And then I discovered that I actually really loved using the digital scriptures so that I could listen. And I would turn on conference talks, and I'd even turn on the scriptures and I would listen, but it didn't replace my scripture study. And I didn't even try to study digitally because I loved studying in paper scriptures so much. Now, the only drawback of using paper scriptures, the only one is that you can't do what digital scriptures can do. But actually that is a very broad category. And when I say digital scriptures, I'm talking specifically about the Gospel Library app that is put out by the church. So besides listening to the content, I thought it was really great to have the app. I could have scriptures with me anywhere I went and open it up. If I forgot my scriptures at home, for instance, then I wasn't lost in Sunday School. And that was really nice. But it was really the backup for my real scriptures. Until... I discovered the powerful tools for marking, and annotating, and- this is the big one- for connecting content together that I realized the huge benefit of digital scripture study. And the church keeps adding new content and features all the time. So let's take a look. The first thing I want to point out on the app is this little icon. As you're reading the scriptures, you'll see this icon come up every now and again on the right hand side, and it means that there is related content. So all you have to do is you click on it and the related content pops up. Now, if you're on a desktop, then there's a sidebar and you have to click into it and it changes your screen. If you're on your phone though, when you click on that icon, the related content just pops up in its own window right there, and it saves your place in the scriptures. Sometimes it's a picture or a video and brand new this year, there are links to new content called Scripture Helps, and this is a total game changer, you guys. I love this! If you're watching this as a video, then you can see the example right here. For those listening, the related content icon is next to Genesis chapter 1, verse 26, and it's talking about the creation. And when you click on the icon, there's a question that reads "Who was involved in the creation?" And then there's this short little paragraph, and I won't read the whole thing, but it talks briefly about God not being alone in the creation. So this related content feature is amazing. If you don't at least look at the digital scriptures and look at this feature, then you are really missing out. Okay? Especially if you're teaching the scriptures to others, your family or a class, these Scripture Helps will help you be prepared to answer many of their questions. Okay, so the other feature I want to point out is how easy it is to mark and connect verses in the library app. Let me show you. Here I am in Genesis chapter 4, verse 1, and I want to tag it and make a note. Tags are just little labels, and the notes are longer thoughts. It's, so let me show you. I hold down my finger to highlight this phrase at the end of verse 1, and then this toolbar will pop up and I'll. Click on this tag icon. It looks just like a little tag that would go on a Christmas gift. And then I start to type in my tag, and for this verse, I want to tag it with the word motherhood and look at that. It pops up as a tag that I already created, so I can select that tag and you can add as many as you want. And then I'm done. And you can see now next to this verse, there's a tag icon right there. It also highlights the phrase, and if I click on the highlight, then I can change the color and style of the highlight, but I can also add a note, which I will do now, This verse is talking about Adam and Eve having a baby and naming him Cain. And Eve says, "I have gotten a man from the Lord." Okay, so I want to add a note because I really love the idea that a child is a sacred stewardship from the Lord, and I had that thought when I was reading. So I'll type that in and I'll save it. And now when I go back to the verse, right next to that highlighted phrase it shows that there are multiple things here; there's a tag and a note. And if I click on those, it brings it up. Here is my note with the tag right here, "motherhood" at the bottom. And from there I can click on the tag motherhood and it brings up every place that I have tagged with that. And if I wanted to, I could click into these and it would change my screen, and I could look at them deeper. Or I can just read my tags, be reminded of the other places where motherhood is talked about in the scriptures, and then I can just back out and keep reading in Genesis chapter 4. It is so amazing that all these things can be connected with this little label, with this tag. And it's not just for the scriptures- you can highlight and tag and make notes for all of the content in the Gospel Library. So you could also tag conference talks. You can tag your lesson manuals. You could go into song lyrics of your favorite hymn and highlight a word or a phrase and tag it. Isn't that amazing? It's such a powerful tool to be able to connect all this content together. It's all in one place, and then in the future you can find them again. And you can customize the homepage of your library app to have quick links to your notes and your tags. I told you that sometimes I would look in my paper scriptures for something that I had read, whereas if I had tagged that in my digital scriptures, then I'd just say, oh, I remember- I'm looking for a verse about motherhood, or about patience or about hope or about repentance. And then it will not only bring up that one thought, but everything else related to it that I've tagged in this completely unique list of scriptures. And it's my own compilation. Even though you can mark and take notes in your paper scriptures. It is not nearly as easy to connect and jump between the related content as it is in the digital world. So what I do for my personal scripture study, I use both. Usually I'll first sit down with my paper scriptures and my colored pencils and I'll ponder and mark and learn and I'll make notes. And I really do feel like I'm less distracted with my paper scriptures than I am when I'm on a device. And I really do remember better and understand more... But then I will open up my gospel library app and tag and create notes and connect everything together. And from there I can find that related content that enriches the study that I've already done. So what are the drawbacks of digital study? Well obviously you can't get the same thing with digital study as you do with the paper scriptures. So you might not get the same connection and understanding, and you might be tempted to check your notifications or pop into another app. So distractions are a huge part of that. The other thing is that a lot of apps out there condition us to scroll, that we have this endless scroll going on. Well, the way that you scroll in other apps might bleed over into your scripture reading, and then there's the very real possibility that it'll turn into scripture skimming- that you're just kind of going as fast as you can... get the main idea... yeah, yeah, yeah... I understand it... and move on. And that's not what scripture study is about, right? Scripture skimming has its place, but if you're wanting to study, then you might find it better to start in paper scriptures. So what is actually best, paper or digital? Well, there are a couple of situations where that answer is

if you don't have access to the app, then paper scriptures are absolutely the best for you. And if you don't have access to your own paper scriptures, then digital is obviously the way to go. But for most of us, I would encourage you to just experiment with both. Be really intentional about it though. Ask yourself, where are you the most comfortable? Where do you get the best understanding? How effective are your studies with each one? And one of the most important factors that you should pay attention to is how much you actually interact with the scriptures. Are you doing something with it? If all you're doing is reading and putting it away, then you're not going to get nearly as much out of it. But if you're interacting- you're marking, you're writing notes, you're looking for things- and we'll talk about so many different ways to interact with the scriptures as we move on through the podcast this year- but how much you interact with the scriptures is key, so pay attention to that. Most likely as you experiment, you're going to find that the best for you is a balance of some kind between the two. It might be mostly digital with a little bit of paper. It might be mostly paper with a little bit of digital. It could be anywhere along the spectrum. One last word of warning, however. When you're in the Gospel Library app, there's this one thing that you need to watch out for. The app has so much content, there's so much there. I want you to be careful- if you are going into it to study the scriptures, then there's the very real possibility that you will get lost in other content. And it's good content, right? All of it is good. But if you are trying to study the scriptures, then don't forget the principle of good, better, and best. There is the very real danger that you can get wrapped up in reading other content and end up missing out on actual scripture study. So those goals that I asked you to make in these last few episodes, keep those in mind. And be sure you're not getting so busy with the other content that your scripture study goals are getting neglected. Because even though there are so many ways to study the gospel, your study should always be primarily scripture. Thank you so much for being here with me. Next week we're gonna dive into the actual how-tos of studying our scriptures. We're gonna talk about things to search for, and ways to ponder. Of course, it's always up to you to begin and end your study with prayer. But I have a testimony that as you search and ponder and pray, the spirit of the scriptures will fill your heart and your testimony of Jesus Christ will grow. And isn't that the point? I'm Cindy Young. Thank you so much for being here with me on Primarily Scripture. Thanks for tuning into Primarily Scripture with Cindy Young. Don't forget you can subscribe to the newsletter and download free worksheets on the website, primarily scripture.com. And if you like the channel, be sure to subscribe, like, share, and leave a review. See you next time.