Back when I came into the office every day, it was a 45-minute commute. At least one day every week, I had no active memory of getting from the north side of the beltway to my house (about 20-25 minutes). I’d reach this point, and it was like someone flipped a switch, and I became aware that I existed.
I’ve done this with Audio Books. I’ve listened to 2-3 chapters, and they’ll mention an assassin; Brain goes, wait, assassin? WHAT ASSASSIN? I start rolling back find out I completely tuned out 20 minutes of the story.
This is why I can’t listen to audio books. I just get lost in the soothing voice and my mind wonders. Paper books are where it’s at.
Podcasts and technology connections on YouTube. I totally enjoy them, but if I’m halfway tired and my mind doesn’t want to focus and I put either on, I’m passing out after 10 minutes.
I did find this paper where somebody used the term “mindless reading”
Smallwood, J. (2011). Mind‐wandering while reading: attentional decoupling, mindless reading and the cascade model of inattention. Language and Linguistics Compass, 5(2), 63–77. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-818x.2010.00263.x
Seems that is the term used for it such as this talk in 2006
https://ies.ed.gov/director/conferences/06ies_conference/posters/readingtq_reichle.asp
Abstract: “Mindless reading” occurs when, during reading, our eyes continue to move across the printed page in spite of the fact that we are busy thinking about things that are often completely unrelated to the text.
I think we’ve got some drivers around here who drive like that.
This was a symptom of ADHD that I discussed with my doctor when I got diagnosed tbh
Is it an actual ADD symptom? I do this all the time.
Yes, but many things are symptoms of ADHD, but no single symptom alone is a sign of ADHD.
This is why studying takes me 4 times longer than the average person. I have to reread so many things to make it sync in. It annoys me how somone can just look or read something once and they have it already
Text-to-speech is your friend here.
I use a website called “speechify” but there are a lot of options.
Still helps to read along with it, but having that auditory input in tandem with visually reading will keep you on track like you’ve never experienced.
Or listening to an audio book and reading the book at the same time, but then often there’s the case where one is a different version than the other.
Surely there’s a very long German word for it.
Attentiondefißithyperactivitydißorder
It’s called ADHD.
Sure. Or it’s just tiredness and completely normal to happen.
It’s called “looking at memes”.
