What if we told you that just by bolding certain parts of a text, your reading speed would improve? Sounds good, and this is the premise under which Bionic Reading works, a new method that promises to improve our concentration, speed and comprehension when reading a piece of text. This “Bionic Reading” comes to us in the form of an extension for your favorite browser, and you can already try it.
Best of all, Bionic Reading is at your fingertips. To use it, you just have to download the extension to your browser and start enjoying its benefits. With it, you will see how some parts of a text are highlighted in bold, directing the focus of your eyes to the important parts of it. According to the official website of Bionic Reading“your brain reads faster than your eyes”, so this, in theory, should help us understand better.
Some have already started testing this app and praising its performance; others are not so convinced. A priori, this tool could help people with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD, or ADHD for its acronym in English) and people with Dyslexia. Nevertheless, Is it really as useful as its creators claim? Here we discuss it. In addition, we are going to show you how to download it in case you want to try it yourself.
How to use Bionic Reading
To use bionic reading, you just have to download the extension in your browser. It is currently compatible with Google Chrome, Firefox, Opera and Edge. Just follow these steps to install it.
- start with to download the file from the official website of GitHub. In case you have Chrome or Edge, you can go directly to the extensions shop.
- install the extension in your browser.
- Once it has downloaded, open it by clicking on its icon. In the case of Chrome, tap on the puzzle piece icon and tap on the function Pin up.
- Now, you will see a J enclosed in a gray box. Click it to open the Bionic Reading window.
- clicking on Toggle Reading Mode Bionic Reading mode will be activated on the web. Using the rest of the buttons you can modify its parameters to your liking.
When you activate it, the text of the web where you are will have a slightly different format. Now, the first letters of each word will appear in bold, allowing you to better focus on the text on the screen.
Not all that glitters is gold
According to the official Bionic Reading website, it was invented by typographer Renato Casutt. Here, it is explained that this method was independently tested on 12 different participants. In addition, it is clarified that people with dyslexia were not explicitly taken into account.
In his statements, he comments that results were inconclusive. Thus, he also comments that, although the Bionic Reading was a success in some, others found it a bit disturbing.
Not counting, moreover, that a sample of 12 people is extremely small for a study that promises to have found the cure for a malaise as broad as the short attention span of a text. In fact, had this method been submitted for review in any trade journal, it probably wouldn’t have made it past an intern’s email inbox. The positive effects of this method are not even clarified, encompassing everything in a slogan —wrong, moreover— that ensures that “the brain reads faster than the eye”.
What makes reading “slow” is not exactly a low ability to perceive the words in the text. Research has found links between reading speed and language processing. This process is what converts these lines of text into meaning for our brain. In this way, although Bionic Reading promises to make us read five books in two minutes; the brain continues to have the task of understanding everything at the same rate.
Alternatives to Bionic Reading
If you have traits of ADHD or Dyslexia, The most recommended thing to alleviate the symptoms a little when reading is to do it slower. In fact, this is the complete opposite of what this Bionic Reading sells us, which is made to be able to read even faster. This technique has decades of testing behind it, and has proven to be quite effective in people with these conditions.
Also, another proven and effective method is to use your finger — or the mouse pointer — to guide you as you read the text. This way, you can have a guide to help you keep a better focus on the words.
Although Bionic Reading seems to have come as a panacea to a lot of problems and ailments, it seems that it is not so much. Of course, at a time when we have sources of distraction everywhere, it is clear that can be effective for a group of people. However, at a time when reading is being replaced by videos and audio, is it really worth valuing speed over compression?