A friend put me onto a new app called Spritz being developed by some Boston entrepreneurs. They claim it will enable you to read faster, up to 1000 words per minute (most of us read around 250). The key is that they eliminate the left to right motion of our eyes on the page. Instead, Spritz presents you with a box and a focal point set for maximum ease in reading and flashes one word at a time at a set amount of words per minute that the reader can adjust.
The developers claim that this not only enhances reading speed but also comprehension and this is born out in tests reading books like A Tale of Two Cities. Our optimal comprehension speed is often higher than our reading speed.
You can read more about this technology which could be embedded in web technology, smartphones, and other digital devices in a Here and Now interview with Frank Waldman, the CEO and founder of Spritz.
I’m not sure entirely how I feel about this. I don’t mind digital devices. I could actually see how it could render web content more readable and enhance comprehension of this media. I bet students will love it when they have heavy reading assignments. The print size of the words makes it easier on aging eyes as well.
But I wonder about a few things. One is, even sampling this a short time, it started feeling tedious to have my eyes fixed on this box and to pay constant attention to the rapidly changing words. Yes I comprehended the content, even at faster speeds, but I could not say I enjoyed it.
More than this, I thought about the fact that often I want to savor a book. There are some books I don’t want to end. I don’t want to read them fast. I suppose I can always elect not to do so. Just not sure that faster is better. And of course, it doesn’t work on physical books.
It also seems to have the shortcoming that I find with e-books. It is not easy to page back to something you want to check. It is just a relentless stream of words, that you can pause, to be sure.
I think I would like to try this sometime at greater length to give it a fair trial. I wonder if there are certain kinds of reading where it can be particularly useful. Just not sure I want to read this way all the time, especially when reading for pleasure.
Anybody else use this yet and what did you think?