Is online chess learning as effective as using books? I started playing chess long before the Internet or even computers were tools that could help you learn chess. Trainer GM Arthur Yusupov believes that you should set up every position on a board, and study it that way (he even puts this in the forward of most of his books).

Recently, I have been doing tactics on one of the various sites I belong to, and I found that it is way too easy to just move the pieces and guess at the answer compared to when I read a book, and have to really think about what the answer is.

Which is more a effective way of learning and why?
I have found that reading books makes one concentrate more, and the material is usually covered more in-depth. I think that the "in-depth" part of this is what is important. The explanations are usually much better, and geared toward learning something more permanently.

I find that my work on a famous chess site that you buy materials has been much more shallow. I can click, and it does not matter if I get it right since it shows me what I did wrong immediately. Instead, when I read a book, I really have to think hard since a book does not spit out the answer.

I also just found this Quora question, and the level of players answering is astoundingly high, and they all seem to agree that books are still the way to go.