Thread: Speed Reading

i didn't even know there was such a thing.

I don't think it can hurt your vision. But I think if it's something that your really trying to take in then you should go at a more erasonable pace so that you don't miss anything. Atleast for me because I often begin thinking of other things while I read so after I read a page I have to go back and read it again because I don't remember what I read cuz I was thinking of other things at the same time. That's one reason I enjoy manga so much it seems easier for me to focus on.

Though speed reading is useful when you just want to get the main idea of something. I do it when I read my school assignments and stuff because I get just enough out of it to kow what's going on. Plus I don't waste time picking up the useless information that I could have figured out on my own.

An example of this would be when I was reading my U.S. History book and it had a sentence that went, "Roads and buildings cost money." Hhhmmm I'm glad they filled me in on that one because I wasn't sure if things cost money, haha.

In high school, I used to speed read, cause I was in Honors english classes, and there was A LOT of reading. But I stopped, because I was missing a lot of little things that was resulting in me missing some vital points. i also used to speed read through tests, but I started missing questions cause I was skipping over important words, like NOT or EXCEPT (i hate those kinds of question...). So now I take my time with all important material I read. But I still speed read the paper. I guess it's good as long as you can retain the info, and aren't eliminating important words. Not all those connecting words are meant to be skipped...

I don't know if it's dangerous or not...but I know I can't do it. Espically for school documents, I I need to understand what I read. And since I'm French, I have to take my time reading things in English even if I'm blingual because sometimes there are still some words I don't understand so I'm a totally slow reader...

I would consider this a gift, being a college student that doesnt like to be forced to read crapola a whole lot, it'd be helpful in that category, but I like to take my time with novels I choose to read, I love getting enjoyment out of them. So I wish I had the ability yes, but I wouldnt use it in all cases.

I dont think it is harmful, I think it should be used at its own risk though. As long as you understand the material why does it matter how fast you get through it?

Originally Posted by ffgirl23

In high school, I used to speed read, cause I was in Honors english classes, and there was A LOT of reading. But I stopped, because I was missing a lot of little things that was resulting in me missing some vital points. i also used to speed read through tests, but I started missing questions cause I was skipping over important words, like NOT or EXCEPT (i hate those kinds of question...). So now I take my time with all important material I read. But I still speed read the paper. I guess it's good as long as you can retain the info, and aren't eliminating important words. Not all those connecting words are meant to be skipped...

I also used to speed read in school, and then started missing stuff like that. I do homeschooling now and speed read almost everything, and slightly miss sometimes, so I guess it was just the hurry in school to get it done that made my studies harder.

Anyway, I agree, I don't think speed reading is bad for you in any form, just difficult for your eyes is your in lesser light than you should. I strane sometimes even looking at my monitor on those late nights in the dark...but still never had a problem with my eyes after a little rest.

So has anyone heard of that thing you put over your eyes so you can speed-read and retaine EVERYTHING without even looking at the words ??? I heard about it from one of my friends, and said he'd seen it a while back. I remember vaguely about it, but I dunno where it had gone to... Does anyone else remember such a contraption ?

To Mamimi: an item to put over your eyes? Umm... rose-colored glasses? See a perfect world? I have no idea.

Anyway, I remember in 7th grade, I used to speed-read my Lit. books, then my Lit teacher yelled at me (Lol, not true "yelling", but she forced me to read slower. It was pretty funny), so I slowed down a bit. Afterwards, I got into 9th, and I speed-read EVERYTHING, but 10th grade tests killed me because of the stupid, EVIL details. So while speed-reading IMO won't hurt your eyes (unless you do stupid stuff like reading in near-darkness), it CAN be detrimental to the amount of info you retain.