All of us do a great deal of reading in a day, except we just don’t pay much mind to it. Take yourself, for example, you’re currently reading this post, but I am willing to bet you don’t really count this as reading.
When I say that we read more than we notice, I mean the simple act of interpreting symbols (mainly letters) to have meaning. I felt it would be fun to showcase all the ways we typically end up reading hundreds or thousands of words across a day, without really considering it as reading.
Social Media
Whether it be those annoying subtitles that appear on TikTok and Instagram Reels, the captions below posts, or the comments section—we actually end up reading quite a bit when doom-scrolling.
For someone like me, I don’t go on social too much across a day, but I’m sure I still end up reading hundreds of words from captions alone. For those with a far greater amount of screen time, they may be reading thousands of words on social media.
Text Messages
Almost everybody texts on a daily basis, it’s just the way of life now. Although much of our text messages can be short-handed, informal, and full of spelling mistakes, these still count as reading. I suppose that means they also count as small instances of writing, especially if you’re a rambler.
Signs, Posters & Notices
This really depends on how much you go out, or how often you travel. Those who take a day out in the town or city might find themselves reading a lot of promotional signs or announcements.
Sure, the vast majority of these are just for selling you something, or informing you of directions, but it’s still reading!
Operating Systems
Whether it be your computer, phone, or any other device, you still have to do some amount of reading on them. Maybe you need to hunt down a specific file, or tweak a specific setting, which leads to you trawling through lists of irrelevant items.
It’s probably the most hands-off form of reading we can do, especially with how most operating systems use icons to be more user-friendly, but it still counts towards a very small slice of our daily reading.
Packaging & Shopping
Packing uses words to draw us in, and it works. We often end up giving them a glance, or sometimes examining all the information included on the box. Similarly, when we browse listings on Amazon and eBay, that’s still reading.
And after we buy something, especially food or an item that has some instructions included, we typically need to give them a few minutes of proper reading to be fully informed about what to do with them. This can be something as simple as cooking or wash cycle instructions, or a complete manual for a new camera or flatpack furniture.
The reason we don’t view many of these things as reading is due to what we associate the idea of reading with, which is usually entertainment or education. We read non-fiction to be informed, and we read fiction to be immersed, whereas we read text messages to reply and social media captions for context.
It is still reading, as far as the basic act goes, but it isn’t the conventual idea of what we typically call reading. Is it the same as cracking open a book? Certainly not. But I would be willing to argue that reading these other forms of writing is still good for our brain and stimulates us mentally… except for all that brain rot slang people now use online.
Ultimately, words are a big factor in how we understand what we are looking at. It’s amazing how natural they are to us, and how we automatically convert special symbols into meaning just through muscle memory and correlation.
Leave a Reply