I'm going to say it, a book is better than a phone.

For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street with a point.

Now, stop me if you've heard this.

The guy is walking his dog right beside a very busy road, and he almost dies because he's staring straight into, wait for it, a book.

Now, you were expecting it to be his phone, right?

If you're going to risk your life, at least do it for the printed word.

We might tell ourselves there's no difference between reading on paper and reading on a device,

but as Dr. Martin Tobin writes, our eyes lie to us. Cognitive scientists have discovered that

reading is not only a visual activity, it's a bodily activity, Tobin writes. A book is a physical

object. You see it and feel the texture of

its pages. Leafing back and forth provides a mental map of the entire text. It aids in your

comprehension and in your recall. And of course, when we read a book, we're not tempted to check

email, voicemail, Facebook, text, and on and on and on. So put down the phone, grab a real book,

but avoid traffic when you do so.

For more on faith and culture, come to breakpoint.org.

I'm John Stone Street.