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It's not really 'slow' reading the article is talking about, but uninterrupted reading. From personal experience, I agree that reading long-form textual works,

by veidr 12y ago

It's not really 'slow' reading the article is talking about, but uninterrupted reading. From personal experience, I agree that reading long-form textual works, particularly fiction, is fundamentally different than perusing typical hypertext information. I love the web, certainly, but it's just a different thing, even though using the web does involve the act of reading words. I also intuitively agree that uninterrupted reading is beneficial to human development, and it is interesting to see studies that support that. (This article, somewhat ironically, would have been better had it linked to the studies that it mentioned.)

Broken_Hippo 12y ago
I intuitively disagree that uninterrupted reading is beneficial to human development. I don't see this behavior from the few people I secretly wonder if they wouldn't be considered genius, if they would only take the test. What they do, however, is read a wide variety of topics often. One very rarely leaves the house without a book, has files on his phone as a backup, and downloads enough non-fiction that I wonder when he can read it. Does he read in long chunks? Sure, if the internet is down or he has to wait. Does he do this often? Not if he can help it. The point is that he reads. Often. Likely more than most people get in their half hours intervals - but if that is the only way for people to read, I fully support it. I do not doubt many of the benefits of reading, but I think uninterrupted reading is more of an exercise in extended concentration and Im sure there are multiple ways to learn this.
- veidr 12y ago
  I don't think it's about concentration, but more about the exercise of putting yourself mentally in other people's shoes. And I don't think the benefits of uninterrupted reading are necessarily becoming 'smarter'. They are more like being better able to understand people different from you, more easily able to change your mind based on new information, etc. Here's a somewhat better article on the topic: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-athletes-way/201401/reading-fiction-improves-brain-connectivity-and-function http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-athletes-way/201401/...

by veidr 12y ago

Broken_Hippo 12y ago

I intuitively disagree that uninterrupted reading is beneficial to human development. I don't see this behavior from the few people I secretly wonder if they wouldn't be considered genius, if they would only take the test. What they do, however, is read a wide variety of topics often. One very rarely leaves the house without a book, has files on his phone as a backup, and downloads enough non-fiction that I wonder when he can read it. Does he read in long chunks? Sure, if the internet is down or he has to wait. Does he do this often? Not if he can help it. The point is that he reads. Often. Likely more than most people get in their half hours intervals - but if that is the only way for people to read, I fully support it. I do not doubt many of the benefits of reading, but I think uninterrupted reading is more of an exercise in extended concentration and Im sure there are multiple ways to learn this.

veidr 12y ago
I don't think it's about concentration, but more about the exercise of putting yourself mentally in other people's shoes. And I don't think the benefits of uninterrupted reading are necessarily becoming 'smarter'. They are more like being better able to understand people different from you, more easily able to change your mind based on new information, etc. Here's a somewhat better article on the topic: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-athletes-way/201401/reading-fiction-improves-brain-connectivity-and-function http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-athletes-way/201401/...