I've found with this type of text that if I try to read it normally, I struggle to process the change between the start and end of each word, and read much more slowly. If I try to read quickly though, it flows, as if I'm skimming the words but still understanding them properly.
It's a very strange feeling :)
I can read it twice as fast and remember less than half of it.
My reading speed was never the problem. It's the reading comprehension and memory that limits me.
Ah, the "I read three pages but my brain was thinking about bees"
God, this used to annoy me so bad. I'd read the same three paragraphs over and over again, only for my mind to wander immediately every time. I've since come to appreciate it though, because my mind usually wanders off to think about potential scenarios in the book I'm actively reading.
Like what two characters might say if they were to have a conversation about something specific, or even how the current situation I'm trying to read about might progress (instead of just focusing on the damn words that give me that answer, thanks brain). Time spent daydreaming about a story I enjoy isn't time wasted IMO.
Though, it's admittedly still very annoying when I'm trying to read something boring like a science or news article.
What kind of bees?
Didn't know these existed until yesterday one flew into my home.
It was so big I initially thought it was a hornet
I love this in principle but I can’t use it myself. I‘m a very fast reader by default, basically already doing what the highlighting tries to make you do, without it needing to be there. The highlighting disrupts that for me. I end up stopping at every word and partially jumping back and forth. I do show this to people on occasion that aren’t as lucky as me with their reading speed and most said it helped them. Not all though.
it slowed my reading in the same way.
Felt wierd realy, like I couldn't read ahead while my inner voice was "saying" it.
This picture is yelling half of every word at me
Yeah, I could read it faster but it also feels like it's messing with my eyes. I think anything of real length in this style would give me a headache.
I hate it. Made me read twice as fast and use four times as much brainpower to comprehend it.
Same, I was hoping to burn 20 seconds of my life and instead it took only 10
This reads like one of my brother’s brainrot videos being read by an AI.
This "tech" has been out for a while but I don't know that we can easily get it on our phones and computers for general reading :(.
Anyone know?
There's a bionic reader extension for Firefox that works on mobile, but obvs that only works on webpages
Most such phone apps should be web pages, and the good ones usually have a web-page version.
I'm skeptical about how much the bolding makes people read faster vs placebo of just telling people they should be reading faster. Also as other people stated, comprehension is what counts.
Book's Story e-reader supports this by the way:
Wow, thanks I was looking for a replacement to ReadEra, I didn't find this with F-Droid's search
What about this is "bionic"? And what part of the brain is the "brain center"?
I'm not ADHD, but that particular passage using that particular font and those particular colors seemed to speed up my ability to read the text. But when Staments posted below (https://lemmy.zip/post/45655234/20636698) using what looks like the same methodology, it ended up being an impediment. I struggled to even get through the first sentence.
So I have to wonder if there's more to it than just randomly putting a character or few in bold at the start of each word -- like maybe it's also highly dependent on things like the font being use and making sure to use specific words and phrases that are conducive to this technique.
to be honest, it might be just me but i find this even more oberwhelming. its like the text is saying "THINK FAST, READ FAST GO GO GO GO" and yeah idk its more overwhelming
Hmm, this doesn't work for me, for some reason. I end up having to pause at the beginning of each word, like a child trying to sound out words while reading. It's not matching the flow and I feel like something is constantly off...
What the fuck. How could bolding half the word make me stutter in my own mind? This is absolutely unreadable. This gave me anxiety the moment i looked at it. This is like that one paragraph that talks about the letters being rearranged. Complete gibberish.
It helps me read faster, but IDK what effect it has on comprehension in a longer text. If I struggled to read I might be tempted to try it, but thankfully that's not one of my many issues.
I personally read that passage faster than normal (2x-ish), but yeah, zero comprehension afterwards. If my brain is just filling in the blanks for the back half of every word I'm not actually "reading", I'm solving a puzzle and then on to something else.
Reading this is like pointing an information machine gun on my brain and pulling the trigger. I read the first sentence faster and then the buffer overflows and I have to constantly stop reading or re-read stuff because the comprehension part of my brain cannot keep up. I feel like I naturally already kinda read like this, I don't read character for character but kinda skim words and know what it says. The image forces me to read in a very unnatural way because I cannot properly use the last part of the word for extra confidence in these predictions.
How do I get this on a kindle?
I think that was debunked once but i am lazy to find the related survey / study.
It seems disproven, or perhaps only useful to some subset of people they haven't pinpointed.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0001691824001811
Honestly though if it helps someone they should ride that placebo as far as it takes them!
I read the study @BCOVertigo@lemmy.world linked and the following statements can be made:
for 32 university students with normal vision and without dyslexia who have not encountered bionic reading before
but
There were no studies following up on these results, so if someone wants to go for it, it's free real estate!
So what's the plugin to switch to this by default?
Old Tony, is this Nice! I read like this like im a normal Person lol.
Doesn’t this just work for everyone?
This just hurts my brain 😭
I kept getting distracted by future bold letters and had to reread multiple times. The wording is also strange.
This is crazy
This also works with neurotypicals tho...
The fuck
This appears to operate on the same speed-reading technique of “read only the spaces.”
It’s considered a beginner technique because although faster methods can be learned, this method can be used by many/most readers on their very first try.
Edit: also I’m not sure it has anything to do with neurodivergence.
I used to use a browser extension to do this, mostly liked it until I tried to convert all my ebooks to it as well. It’s works, but it technically splits the words into two objects in order to change the font, which makes searching the book nearly impossible because typing a whole word will no longer find instances of it, instead you have to search for either half. Only an issue for ebooks, but it sort of turned me off of using this in general. Also I believe it’s “technically” copyrighted. I remember encountering something that wanted me to pay to use this. I found alternatives, but still, just left a bad taste in my mouth even though it helped. It did help me naturally read faster even without it, because rather than directly processing each letter I can do a sort of exclusion based search of my vocabulary as I process each letter. After 2 or 3, sometimes 4 letters, and with context I can correctly assume the rest of the word and move on.
Attention neurodivergent community - this bionic reading method is absolutely mind blowing. Your eyes scan the first bold letters and your brain center automatically completes the words. It lets you read twice as fast, is less overwhelming and helps you to stay focused. You will feel much more productive and a greater sense of achievement which will boost your confidence and makes you overall feel more positive. Let me know in the comments if this bionic reading method works for you.
Normal text for reference
The lighter side of ADHD
