Reading on social media - faster or slower

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by rcentros

If I understood his/her original meaning (replacing "social media" with "eReaders"), I did respond to that, by saying that , in my opinion, eBooks should be as close to paper books as possible and that (for me) reading on the two mediums is not a significantly different experience.

But maybe I've missed something else?

No, no. You aren't missing anything. I'm the one making a mess.

My point was that reading social media is easier to do spontaneously because, for the most part you are just skimming.

Reading a book, whether in paper, e-ink or LCD screen form should take the same amount of time.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Reading a book, whether in paper, e-ink or LCD screen form should take the same amount of time.

From my personal experience, I find my reading speed is not affected by the medium as long as the book is presented in a paged format.

The one time that I tried an ereading app that was supposed to scroll through the book so in theory it minimized eye movement, it would not work for a reading speed that averaged over 300 WPM and so slowed me down horrendously. The response from the app creators was a trifle useless -- "reading over 300 WPM with decent comprehension is not possible".

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by DNSB

The one time that I tried an ereading app that was supposed to scroll through the book so in theory it minimized eye movement, it would not work for a reading speed that averaged over 300 WPM and so slowed me down horrendously.

I had a similar experience with a scrolling reading app. My problem was that it actually increased my eye movement, rather than minimized it. With lines of text moving up the screen, I often lost my place when moving to a new line, and my eyes had to do double-time scanning to regain it. I tried to adjust, but I quickly learned that with books, my eyes need to do the moving, and not the words/lines. Makes me dizzy just thinking about it!

I do okay for a paragraph or three--enough to read a forum post or a news article, but for books, I need pagination. Plain and simple.

I too find that my reading speed is largely unaffected by the medium. I find that I tend to read more books by primarily ereading, but that's mainly because I don't have to go to the store/library, to get new ones.

[Dazrin]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

I had a similar experience with a scrolling reading app. My problem was that it actually increased my eye movement, rather than minimized it. With lines of text moving up the screen, I often lost my place when moving to a new line, and my eyes had to do double-time scanning to regain it. I tried to adjust, but I quickly learned that with books, my eyes need to do the moving, and not the words/lines. Makes me dizzy just thinking about it!

I do okay for a paragraph or three--enough to read a forum post or a news article, but for books, I need pagination. Plain and simple.

I too find that my reading speed is largely unaffected by the medium. I find that I tend to read more books by primarily ereading, but that's mainly because I don't have to go to the store/library, to get new ones.

I can read online w/o pagination well enough but I find my mouse-hand is running in overdrive. I highlight each passage as I go so that I don't lose track but that makes for a lot of highlighting, clearing, highlighting, clearing, etc. I do actually read slightly faster that way than I do on my Kindle though although I'm not sure retention is as good and I know I feel more exhausted afterwards.

[meeera]

Originally Posted by DNSB

The one time that I tried an ereading app that was supposed to scroll through the book so in theory it minimized eye movement, it would not work for a reading speed that averaged over 300 WPM and so slowed me down horrendously. The response from the app creators was a trifle useless -- "reading over 300 WPM with decent comprehension is not possible".

Good gods. 300WPM is only, what, a page or so per minute? Reading a book in 4-6 hours? That sounds pretty standard to me. I read a page in 30 seconds, give or take, depending on font size and type of book.

[tas03]

I find that I read faster on an ereader. I have no explanation for it. I thought I was imagining things until one of the people at work asked me if I had noticed that reading was faster on a device.

[4691mls]

A while back there was a thread on MR where some people talked about changing margins so there were a certain number of words/characters per line and this made reading faster for some people.

I suppose it is possible that if you set an ebook to your most comfortable font size, margin size, or whatever settings make it better for you, that you could then read faster than a paper book that did not have optimal formatting for you.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by DNSB

The one time that I tried an ereading app that was supposed to scroll through the book so in theory it minimized eye movement, it would not work for a reading speed that averaged over 300 WPM and so slowed me down horrendously. The response from the app creators was a trifle useless -- "reading over 300 WPM with decent comprehension is not possible".

Maybe you just regularly do impossible things

[sealbeater]

I've used RSVP software that has definitely increased my reading speed. I've mentioned this before but I think using such software is too esoteric for most people.

[Apache]

I spent a lot of money with B&N before computers and continued with ebooks. I always downloaded copies and backed them up. After they made it difficult to download copies of books I stopped buying from them. Amazon and Baen get the majority of my money now. A company that stops servicing their customers shouldn't whine when their sales fall into the dungeon.
Apache

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by sealbeater

I've used RSVP software that has definitely increased my reading speed. I've mentioned this before but I think using such software is too esoteric for most people.

I have no real desire to read faster. That would turn it into "work" instead of enjoyment.

[meeera]

Originally Posted by rcentros

I have no real desire to read faster. That would turn it into "work" instead of enjoyment.

Same - and I absolutely don't want to read at a forced pace. Different books, even different paragraphs, can merit different paces and different pauses and bits of re-reading. It's nothing to do with not being able to handle something "esoteric", it just doesn't suit my needs or wants.

[sealbeater]

Originally Posted by rcentros

I have no real desire to read faster. That would turn it into "work" instead of enjoyment.

How so? Some of us enjoy reading faster.

[sealbeater]

Originally Posted by meeera

Same - and I absolutely don't want to read at a forced pace. Different books, even different paragraphs, can merit different paces and different pauses and bits of re-reading.

That's part of what causes you to lose reading speed.

Originally Posted by meeera

It's nothing to do with not being able to handle something "esoteric", it just doesn't suit my needs or wants.

Well, if the shoe doesn't fit, don't force it on your foot. I do think it's "esoteric" for most since most have never even heard of it.


Tell me, what RSVP software did you use? If your need or want is to read faster, RSVP yields far more suporior results than adjusting margins.

Now, when I want to read something faster than my norm, well...

[DiapDealer]

Seems to me like you might be confusing "reading" with "getting to the end."

For many of us, the wandery-pondery, leisurely romp through someone else's imagination IS the attraction.