INTRODUCTION:

Both, books and the internet have been rightly regarded as storehouses of knowledge capable of enlightening a man and in the process of quenching his thirst for knowledge they also transform him into an educated and cultured man. While books have, since the very olden days been the source of information for those who wish to learn new things or learn in depth about a particular subject/issue, the internet on the other hand, has come into picture only in the late 20th century. Both have their own shares of pros and cons which may be compared as follows:

1)   SPACE AND COST:

Of course, one can argue that books are very cumbersome in the sense that he has to buy several books for gaining knowledge about different fields and some books come at very high rates which makes them accessible to only few sections of society while on the internet, information is just a "typing away" and the problem of buying books is solved as one can directly read the information online or by downloading the desired content in his palm sized smart phone or else in a laptop or any suitable device so that he can access the knowledge anytime and anywhere thus fulfilling both convenience and saving money.

2)   READING:

When it comes to reading, it is clear that books are better as staring at the screen frequently while using internet for the sake of obtaining knowledge can cause great damage to eyes, making the reader sacrifice vision for knowledge. Due to the constant use of internet for various purposes, the incidence of people wearing glasses and contact lens has also increased drastically. Moreover, studies have shown that long screen time decreases memory power too.

3)   AUTHENICITY OF INFORMATION:

Books have been reviewed by writers before their publication and they have a proper beginning and an end whereas, the internet is not always a trustworthy place to gain knowledge as the information there is just scattered everywhere like things in a messy room and also it isn't free from error and false information. What is true according to one website may be declared false in another, thus causing confusion to the reader.

4)   DISTRACTION:

Referring to the internet for information can sometimes cause distraction and loss of focus because of unwanted notifications from other apps that may appear while accessing the internet or there may be links and pages that isn't really related to the searched topic. Thus, one would have to search through piles of data from unknown sources just to gain information which can be a waste of time and energy draining. This problem does not arise in case of books.

5)   INFORMATION VARIETY:

While the information presented in a book may be limited and more general at certain times, the internet proves to be superior in this case because it contains a much more detailed information about the same topic from varied sources.

C O N C L U S I O N 

Thus, it is clearly understandable that one is in a dilemma when it comes to choosing between books and the internet as their source of information. But considering all the factors, in my opinion books are more reasonably reliable because not only do they explain the subject or topic concerned with a flow, the information given is also more authentic than those scattered haphazardly all over the place on the internet. Moreover, in my personal experience, I have found that while reading from books I can always add additional information on the book itself and underline important parts too. However, the said privilege is not available in case of using internet for getting the information. But the uses of the internet cannot be denied too as it helps readers in clearing concepts at times by allowing them to get exposed to certain techniques and illustrations in the form of images or even videos which may not be found in books. Clearly both books and internet have their pros and cons, thus it's best if the readers make use of them at the right time based on his own experience. I would like to conclude the article quoting a line given by an eminent English author, Niel Gaiman to drive home the point that books are better than the internet which goes as "Google can bring you back 100,000 answers but a librarian can bring you back the right one".