Ask Lemmy

I don't have situations that make me read in parallel with someone else, so no.

I do however suspect there might be a sort of 'clock speed' to different brains such that the rhythm at which they process can be faster or slower irrespective of ability to reason.

There are plenty of possibilities from ADHD to dyslexia. You should consult a professional if this is a major concern to you.

Read to slow what?

I've always read about half the speed of everyone around me. I've never understood why. I think it could be mild dyslexia. I also have inner monologue narrator voice. You're not alone.

I read at the same speed that the words would be spoken aloud. My SO tells me this is quite slow. I can force myself to read faster, but I find that the color of language is lost when I don't include the right pauses and intonations.

Maybe undiagnosed Dyslexia?

My wife reads so fucking fast. I'll hand her a joke that 10 lines long, within 2 seconds she's laughing and I think ha! You haven't gotten to the punch line yet and then she hands back the joke, the fuck? How'd you read that so quick.

People are always telling me I read fast, but I don't. I just spend a lot of time on it, apparently more than most people are willing to.

I would never say that to anyone, what the fuck? I do read very fast (considerably faster than I can speak or listen) so don't have any expectations about someone else's speed, no idea what is normal or average.

Take your time and enjoy what you are reading! Why are they in a hurry?

I have the opposite problem where I read too fast, but don't actually process anything so I have to re-read it app over again.

If you're processing nearly every word the first time you read it, then you're doing fine. I wish I could read slow and understand, rather than read fast and not comprehend. (ADHD is a bitch.)

If I read too fast on things, then the information will be like grease for my mind and just speed through it. If I read slower, it helps better.

My brother and father both have diagnosed dyslexia and adhd i wasn't ever checked. It doesn't bother me though so I'll keep on cruising along

Can relate. I'm seen as "smart", but I do frequently get comments about how I read slowly. I don't know what's up with that.

Yeah, I can read quick, I've done so for school taking tests and shit, but it's not my default and even when I do I don't like to read quick because it doesn't feel like I understood what I read, even tho subconsciously I somehow do

However when it comes to reading anything it often takes me twice as long, just a meme with text or anything.

If I don’t concentrate on it I miss words or like an Ai hallucination I put random words into the sentence or muddle them around making things often hilarious for myself until I re read the text to get the actual meaning.

If you don't have any medical issue (like, say, a need for glasses to compensate for your poor eyesight maybe? Or maybe you're being dyslexic?) I would question your reading habits. And be assured that this has nothing to do with how smart you are, or anyone else.

You can easily measure how slow you are compared to other people around you and if it happens you're much slower than they are without any medical explanation I would ask if reading is something you regularly do, or not, and if you have ever been taught how to actually read... properly? It's a serious (and non-judgmental question, bear with my lacking English here).

I mean, one just don't magically learn how to read one day while growing up. It's a 100% learned skill, and a real difficult one at that. It's also a lot of practice and the more one reads the better one becomes at it, the less one reads... it's like learning a foreign language.

I'm well into my 50s and I've been reading since I was a little boy. I read every single day but I'm not a 'gifted' reader, far from it. I just have been taught how to properly do it and enjoy it (reducing the amount of effort required) and, as a child, I was required to read by my teachers at school as well as, a lot more as a matter of fact, by my grandfather and by my dad. I was literally required to read books. And then I was also lucky enough to have the opportunity to read great books and authors, and to see those adults around me always reading books and use them as the incredibly powerful tools and weapons they are. It quickly stop being a requirement for me to read, it became something I wanted to do.

Seeing how little kids nowadays are expected to be reading at school (if at all? Are we now at the point where some teachers will encourage kids to read the summary of a book instead of the book itself?), and seeing how seldom most of those kids will see any adult person around them ever open a book, it's no wonder reading is quickly becoming a lost art. And it's no wonder reading for most of those younger people is much harder than it's supposed to be.

Imo, it's also no wonder there are so much resources spend to distract those kids to ever become fluent readers... but that's a whole other discussion.

If you're in that situation (obviously, I have no idea), the good new is that you can easily change that. You just need to start reading more, and more regularly. And you need to be patient before you start seeing a meaningful change.

Are there specific topics or genres you're interested in reading? If so, you can go to your local library and ask the librarians there if they would be able to suggest some books in that genre. Even better, if you have no idea yet on what you may be interested in reading, you can as easily go to your local library and explain your librarian you would like to start reading more and have no idea where to start. They should be more than happy to welcome and help a new reader find their bearings :)

Out of curiosity, do those who read quickly type or write more slowly than you?

I imagine you're looking for a solid understanding of everything you read, like when someone hands you the phone and you want to grasp the context. Speed reading and skimming are essential skills, but the nuances of doing so mean that the details of the information aren't always apparent.

I read fast but I have to go back over what I just read fast like 10 times to extract any meaning from the text. But I've never let anyone observe my terrible reading skill so no, never had anyone tell me I read slow

Back in the Roman empire, they didn't have any punctuation marks or spaces between words. Reading was a lot harder. It was normal to read very slowly, compared to nowadays. And always out loud, sounding out the words, even in private.

I have it probably similar and I have disgrafia so I think this could be because of disgrafia/dyslexia.