We read everyday, from news to social media, from memes to ads. We somehow are forced to read.
But as the amount of information we are forced to process skyrocketed, given that limited time we own, the only possible way is to read faster to accommodate such an increase in the amount. Speed reading then become a skill that a successful student must master. There are thousands of books on teaching readers how to read faster and more efficiently.
It was perceived that if you can read faster, then you can read more efficiently.
It is not always the case. It is true that for a majority of text, we should only be scanning through them. We should never dedicate that much time to those not-so-nutritious texts. Most of them are simply junk.
But for some texts, like some literature, philosophical works, if you are religious, some scared texts (yes, only some) should be read very carefully and very slowly. They can be very thought provoking, but we are not patient enough to read them slow, word by word, and let thoughts flow. We lack that kind of skills.
Slow reading is as important as speed reading, and the former is even more difficult, as it involves so much more than simply grabbing the textual meaning. It integrates a lot of extra activities - understanding the word, ensuring your understanding matches with the writer’s meaning, spotting out ambiguities, finding references in real life, criticizing the words by questioning it, and answering the questions raised.
It is a series of activities consuming a lot of mind power. But it is very fruitful. It is a mind transformation process.
We have a tendency to be lazy, or put it into another expression, energy saving. So it is quite common that when you are practicing slow reading, your mind will suddenly stop functioning, and it will flow elsewhere. You are just tired. But with consistent practice, we should be mastering this skill soon.
Grab a text that will inspire you, and read it word by word, write notes of thoughts about it!