When a pair of bibliophile holidays caught my attention this
week - National Read a Book Day on September 6th and UNESCO’s
International Literacy Day on September 8th ; I wondered, in an age of
decreasing attention spans, does how fast you read matter?
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| ©xkcd |
Over the past few weeks I’ve touched on a several alarming
trends. Distilled - Fewer American’s are reading than ever, often for less than
20 minutes a day, that may be fueling a decrease in empathy (due to the lack of
engagement in storytelling).
Is our super-charged world moving too fast for reading? Are
most people slow readers and not achieving the instant gratification they
expect? In Kevin McSpadden’s piece “You Now Have a Shorter Attention Span Than
a Goldfish”[1] he dug into research conducted by Microsoft for
answers. Canadian researchers “found that since the year 2000 (or about when
the mobile revolution began) the average attention span dropped from 12 seconds
to eight seconds [shorter than a goldfish]” according to the 2015 Microsoft
report.[1] Neuroscientists suspect this may be our brain
evolving in response to the rise of rapid bursts of information and our
fragmenting mobile society. ‘Ooooo shiny’.
Cue ‘squirrel’ from Disney’s UP.
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| ©Giffon Webstudios |
Technology is reprogramming how we collect and collate
information while introducing myriad distractions. How do diminishing attention
spans gristle against the biology of reading? In Mark Seidenberg’s piece
“Sorry, But Speed Reading Won’t Help You Read More”[2] he uses
excerpts from his book to explore the biological limitations of reading. Back
of the napkin, Seidenberg estimates your eyes can only process 280 words per
minute. “The exact number of words per minute is far less important than the
fact that the value cannot be greatly increased without seriously compromising
comprehension.”[2] On average, adults read 200 to 300 words per
minute with a 60% comprehension rate depending on the material.[3&4]
Given the physical processing limits of our eyes and brain, Seidenberg went further
and dispelled most of the popular speed reading modalities.
I have always been a ‘slow’ reader. I read all the words. I
create the environments. I like my immersive escapism. I get a bit grumpy when
someone bothers me while I’ve got a book open. I am totally at odds with a
society demanding I answer every e-mail, direct message and Tweet the second it
arrives. I can’t change the physical processing limits of my biological
supercomputer, yet. Attention spans will continue to dwindle in response to increasingly
fragmented information. How does the slow reader thrive?
Brett Nelson observed,
“The most successful people I know don’t just read – they inhale information… manag[ing] to fit in what amounts to an extra
work days’ worth of reading every week.”[4] Like any skill, reading
takes practice and delayed gratification. Seidenberg further drives the point
home. “The serious way to improve reading – how well we comprehend a text and,
yes, speed and efficiency – is this: Read…
As much as possible… Mostly new stuff.”[2] But maybe turn off the
predictive timer on your eReader… Those things are creepy and only reinforce
how much longer you’ll be engaged in your current read.
Update: Hovering at 60% complete, I’d expect to collect my thoughts
on Cline’s Ready Player One next
week. Until then…
How long is your attention span? How fast do you read? Does
it matter? And thank you for 2 minutes and 15 seconds of your time.
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1: McSpadden, Kevin. “You Now Have a Shorter Attention Span Than
a Goldfish” Time, Time Inc., 14 May
2015, http://time.com/3858309/attention-spans-goldfish/
2: Seidenberg, Mark. “Sorry, But Speed Reading Won’t Help You
Read More” Wired, Condé Nast, 24 January 2017, https://www.wired.com/2017/01/make-resolution-read-speed-reading-wont-help/
3: Nowak, Paul. “What Is the Average Reading Speed?” Iris: Reading at the Speed of Thought,
Iris Reading LLC, 29 May 2018, https://www.irisreading.com/what-is-the-average-reading-speed/
4: Nelson, Brett. “Do You Read Fast Enough to be Successful?”
Forbes, Forbes Media LLC, 4 June
2012, https://www.forbes.com/sites/brettnelson/2012/06/04/do-you-read-fast-enough-to-be-successful/#9ac8760462e7
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