I love the smell of books. A new book’s clean, unread pages just waiting for my eyes to scan them; an old book’s aroma of history condensed into darker pages that make you hold the piece of literature as gently as a newborn. Whether you find reading a tedious task or a relaxing, leisurely pastime, everyone has connected with books one way or another.
We’ve moved on, though. As a society, we’ve developed into busy bees running around the beehive with little time to look up and process. Our world has transformed into one where doing things faster is equivalent with doing them better. Think about it: protein shakes, email, Adderall, microwaves, Kindles. Getting results faster is our society’s new goal. And while I bow down to microwavable rice, I wonder if faster is necessarily better.
Spritz, a new speed-reading app, is capitalizing on our desire for rapid results to potentially change the way we read forever. It’s designed to channel our eyes to the optimal recognition point (ORP) of each word. The OPR is a specific part of each word where most readers recognize its meaning. So as your eyes scan through a line left to right, your eyes are constantly looking for this magic letter (or letters) to allow your brain to instantly recognize the word at hand.
With this new app, the words are given to you one at a time with the ORP highlighted in red. This cuts down the time it takes to read from one word to another as your eye searches for the ORP.
Like presumably most college students, I initially thought this app was a blessing from above. If I could minimize the time to read everything from emails to textbook chapters, my life would be so much easier. But, where do we draw the proverbial line? The line that suddenly crosses from reading my boring textbook chapter at a rapid pace to reading the 309-page “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” in 77 minutes, which is essentially reading 1,000 words per minute. (Note: The average college student reads at a pace between 200 and 400 words per minute)
As my eyes practice on Spritz’s 250 words per minute, I’m amazed at how my eyes change with the words. Then I look at the 500 words per minute and am astonished at how fast my mind can keep up. However, I ultimately feel like a robot.
I take my eyes away from the screen to think about what I just read from the Spritz app, and I can’t remember the details. I can remember the subject matter but nothing more. I couldn’t tell you about the literary tools the author used or the scenario he or she was depicting with words.
I felt like a machine, scanning the words so fast my brain couldn’t think. Reading became a chore, turning the activity into something to just get over it rather than something to enjoy.
I can’t help but wonder what will become of our society as we continue to make the transition from the old-fashioned, detail-minded way to the new, “easy” way.
It reminds me of an episode from Disney Channel’s “Phil of the Future” where spray cans were used to spray out gourmet meals. What will happen to the joys of tasks like cooking or curling up with a good book? What will happen when we completely lose sight of learning and taking our time to produce high quality work?
My old-fashioned persona may be shining through here, but I can’t seem to throw confetti for the future at the risk of losing the quality of our past.
No matter who you are or what field you work in, your job is to develop something of good quality and substance to improve people’s lives. Whether you’re learning new ways to advertise to new demographics, developing sustainable ways to fuel the planet or discovering new art techniques, you’re learning new things that make the old ways of doing things seem outdated and time consuming.
While I applaud the efforts of each passing generation that have given birth to things previously thought of as impossible (shoutout to Matt’s FaceTime article), I can’t help but encourage others to take a step back and do things the traditional way.
Maybe today we’re speed-reading textbooks and emails, but tomorrow we’re speed-reading our mother’s letters, our friend’s articles and our most cherished novels. I can’t stop society from progressing, but I do hope I’m not alone in dipping my feet in before diving into this endless pool of shortcuts and easy ways out. I’ve realize that while the tortoise did not win the race, at least he got a great view of the trail.
Featured photo courtesy of: Stimulbrain
