Relearning the lost skill of deep reading
In 2010, an experimental research made an interesting discovery: when educational material was presented in fonts that are deliberately harder to read, students exhibited improved retention of information compared to those who read the same text in a simpler typeface. Conducted by researchers from Princeton University, the study focused on the concept of disfluency—a phenomenon where the brain processes information more deeply when faced with perceived difficulty. Consequently, the students’ increased concentration on the more challenging typography led to a more thorough understanding of the subject matter they were studying.
Embracing disfluency may seem counterintuitive in the digital era, which prioritizes short and bite-sized content to capture individuals’ ever-diminishing attention spans. However, experts have cautioned that the online environment may be molding our brains to be excessively accustomed to novelty and hyperstimulation, compromising our ability to fully comprehend and absorb information. According to neuroscientist and author Maryanne Wolf, people are losing the skill of deep reading—a focused and immersive engagement with content, which enables us to delve into the complexities of what we’re reading, enter another person’s perspective, and make meaningful connections to our lives.
Wolf expressed concern that many people have reverted to a more primitive style of reading—merely skimming the surface of the content without fully internalizing its meaning. In her words, “Like a phantom limb, you remember who you were as a reader, but cannot summon that ‘attentive ghost’ with the joy you once felt in being transported somewhere outside the self to that interior space.” Undeniably, skimming has become an indispensable skill in coping with the overwhelming volume of information we confront daily. However, our brains may now be adapting skimming as a habitual mode, which persists even when we shift to reading other types of material that require more attention to achieve the needed level of comprehension. As a consequence, the decline of deep reading skills leaves individuals more vulnerable to believing half-truths and disinformation. Since skimming only enables shallow understanding, people are unable to critically assess what they read within a broader context nor see its complex intersection with other topics.
Just as our online habits may have weakened our capacity for deep reading, we can also “rewire” our brains to reacquire this skill over time. Rather than constantly giving in to the dopamine hit that mindless scrolling gives us, we must challenge ourselves once in a while to adopt a more deliberate reading pace. This includes rebuilding our cognitive patience by resisting the impulse to rush to the end of a text or to click on the next stimulus. The main enemy of focus is continuous partial attention. By being more mindful about savoring what we read and committing to achieving a more profound grasp of its meaning, we might slowly rediscover the joy that deep reading once gave us.
Numerous research in the field offers guidance to parents who want to cultivate deep reading skills in their children. For instance, the work of pediatrician John Hutton found that parents who engage in interactive read-aloud sessions with their kids elicit greater brain activation because the children imagine themselves to be part of the story and creatively transform the words into vivid images in their minds. This stands in contrast to the passive engagement that children get when watching animated content on a screen, where they act as receivers of information. And as with adults, children with excessive screen time become so inured to constant stimulation that it impairs the development of their ability to focus. The key, as always, lies in finding balance. Wolf’s challenge for parents is to ensure that printed books continue to hold a prominent place at home and actively teach children to appreciate them alongside their gadgets.
Educators, of course, play a vital role in fostering the skill of deep reading. Growing up, one of my most cherished activities in English class was Drop Everything And Read (DEAR) time. For 40 minutes, we would just go to the library and read about any topic we were interested in—a practice that truly nurtured my love for books. While it is essential for schools to take advantage of the dynamic learning experience that technology offers, they must give equal importance to tactile and slower-paced learning approaches that develop deep reading skills.
As the 2010 Princeton experiment had shown, the best answers do not always come from the quickest paths. And in an age that is fixated on automating every process, it is worth remembering that there is no shortcut to genuine learning.
