Happens way too often to me.
edit: I had no idea this was such a common issue!
I’m doing it reading these comments right now
I just read through the whole page, what comments are you talking about?
I’m reading and reading, but i still don’t understand what you are saying
This is a great discussion! I wonder what you guys said
I don’t even know what this post is about. OP sounds like a dumbass
wait a second here, what did you say?
I ain’t reading allat
I’ve reread so many pages and chapters because of this, sometimes even restarted books entirely
I used to read a lot more, and I do remember this happening, but it happens a lot for me now with podcasts. I’m a big podcast junkie and I will often find myself going down a rabbit hole of thought and realizing I have no idea what they’re talking about anymore.
So glad it’s not only me zoning out on podcasts. I haven’t been able to read a book in years. I’m hoping i can get back into reading again now that I nuked my reddit account
Check if your library participates in Overdrive or Libby (digital library collection). I can’t believe I had been missing out on free ebooks, audiobooks, and comics/graphic novels for years. I just needed an active library card to sign up.
who are you and how do you know me
It’s normal if you have dylsexia/ADHD <3
We need a new r/adhdmemes over here
I think I saw it already
[email protected] This one?
I’m sure it’s normal for everyone to do occasionally, but if it’s debilitating/all the time it’s probably something like ADHD. I cannot even read a book but I can listen to an audio book. I might have to rewind it a lot but it’s better than actually reading.
I’m pretty sure I have undiagnosed inattentive type ADHD so this is the story of my life. One word could send my brain on a journey of other related things even while I’m still reading the words. I have to reread so much.
I have diagnosed adhd and this is very much my life. Audiobooks are the best! It still happens, but way way less
I wish I could do audiobooks. I don’t know if it’s my autism making it more difficult to process auditory information or what, but audiobooks are even more difficult for me. I love podcasts though, since that is just casual conversation and I never get too lost even if I zone out and miss something.
I’ve never been able to do audiobooks unless I’m reading along. Can’t pay attention to spoken words. I used to hate when teachers would make students take turns reading passages aloud. I literally couldn’t pay attention because they would read s o s l o w l y that my brain would have too much time to think between words.
I think you just unlocked a memory. It is so difficult for me to understand when people are talking too slow. I can’t remember what words were at the beginning by the time we get to the end. I always have to watch everything with subtitles.
I have diagnosed inattentive type and was just sitting here wondering if this was a feature of it.
Diagnosed combined type checking in - I also do this. I came to the comments to upvote whoever was here to tell OP that if this is a constant struggle, they might have ADHD.
This happens to me a lot. I have ADHD.
Haha yeah came here to comment this to OP. Like, hey I might have some news for you 😉 This is just too recognisable.
And then you have to get a glass of water, feed the dog, go for a walk, do a two hour wiki walk, and maybe then you can go back and read what you’ve missed, but you’ve forgotten the rest of the book.
ADHD aside, you need to ask yourself if you like it, if you’re really interested in the content shown, if maybe your mind is distracted in something, or you’re worried/uncomfortable in the environment you are in and the likes. Have you read How to Read a Book by Mortimer J. Adler? the author explains that we learn to read just on a surface level, leading sometimes to problems like you express. He then teaches how to approach a book in a way that you squeeze the most information and knowledge from it, even if its just a fiction book; and in the process, remember everything that you read even after finishing it. What works for me is: give a conscious effort to concentrate in what you’re reading, but don’t stay in the same page, don’t even read a sentence two times. See if you concentrate better with music; I have ADHD and when I read books I need to listen to three diferent playlists to concentrate. Finally, following the first thing I mentioned, giving a conscious effort is exhausting to the brain so when you realize you can’t concentrate anymore just leave it and start again the next day where you left it, you will notice that your brain will stand more and more all the work out you’re giving it.
I appreciate your insightful comment! I’ll definitely read the book you suggested as soon as I can. I’m not sure if I have ADHD as I’ve never visited a professional about these types of things, but I’ll try out some of the advice you’ve given. Thank you and happy fediversing! :)
No problem, happy to help! Hoping that the book ends up useful for you. I have ADHD, so the thing you described is very common for me, but I understand that all people experience something like that even without having it, so is a matter of understanding what is causing it and work to solve it.
Usually happens because I start thinking about something else without quite realizing it. I do the same thing with podcasts sometimes, too.
It happens. I usually take that to mean that either I’m distracted by other things, or I’m stressed, or very tired. Sometimes it just means it’s time to go to bed.
I do this pretty often, though usually it’s a sentence or line here and there. of course sometimes books are just written that way and the meaning comes later.
It’s a bit of an ADHD thing and you get better at reading with purpose as you go. I used to barely take anything in and I can see books in my list that I’ve read but remember almost nothing about, try to read with conviction, take it in, imagine it as it happens, your comprehension will improve as you go.
Yeah, definitely an ADD/Attention-Processing issue. I used to read a lot as a kid, and after a head injury that aggravated my ADD and years of reading and talking in short-form messages (SMS, twitter, etc), it took me FOREVER to re-learn the skill of reading long-form text.
Luckily, with practice comes mastery, I was able to regain my abilities to read, and I’m currently working on a few textbooks and two casual books. It’s still a struggle in distracting environments (loud children, hospitals, etc), but it’s getting better the more I read.
I struggle in distracting environments due to ASD pretty much forcing brain to take in everything it hears and tries to process it as it would when someone was talking to me directly. I always read with noise cancelling headphones and ambient music.
When I was getting back into reading as an adult (used to read a lot as a kid but stopped for 20 years) I would read along with audiobooks, that worked wonders for getting into a book that I was struggling with.
Oh that’s a really great method! I used to know a guy with ASD who did kind-of the inverse, he was super familiar with reading (specifically the bible), but he had a hard time with conversations. So he learned how to use the bible as a medium to conduct conversation.
Really, really cool discussions were born from that, and by the time I met him, he was almost independently conducting conversation, only going back to certain bible references when he got stuck or he needed to borrow a story or metaphor.
The brain is at its coolest when it’s just a bit different.
Your bible memorising friend makes me think of the Star Trek episode “Darmok”
Indeed, indeed! Diversity is one of the strongest traits of human life (and life in-general).
I don’t recall that episode, I’ll have to go watch it!
It’s a TNG episode, the commonly memed “Darmok and Jilad, at Tenagra” quote comes from that one. the crew try to talk to aliens that speak almost entirely in historical metaphors so their universal translator gets the words right but cant translate the meaning.
Honestly a great episode on communication and understanding and I actually see it referenced a lot in neurodivergent communities, people (nerds) have written dissertations on that one.
Thanks for the recommendation, I just finished watching it–and yeah that speaks volumes (quite literally, haha!). I love how they started off the episode with a very fluent mixture of non-English and a few English phrases.
I should really go back and revisit TNG! I remember watching it as a kid, but now that I have a few decades under my belt, I’ve gone back and watched a few episodes: and it really is packed with amazing philosophy and social commentary.
Oh, God yes. And I do it on audiobooks no less. I was reading something a few months ago. “And she still had no idea who the spy was that one of her friends had been killed and replaced with master impersonator”. Wait… WTF? The chapter just started out that way. Well crap, chapter rewind. No I heard how that one starts out, tractor rewind again… No I heard that one too. I moved back through four chapters…nothing. I went and found the ePub downloaded it and text searched it. It happened like seven chapters ago in the middle of a chapter and I missed maybe 15 pages of content.
It also happens when I’m commuting now and then if I’m listening. I’ll realize that I’m not paying good attention and tap 30-second rewind half a dozen times. Listen to it all again and realize that I totally missed everything they said again even though I’m not doing anything else but driving. I just put some music on and go the hell home.
I’ve actually found audiobooks super helpful in clearing out my backlog, but there are certainly times where i feel like i accidentally started listening to a completely different book
I love audio books because I can catch up on books in my to read pile while driving, but I am so bad about doing this and just zoning out then trying to figure out how much I missed while thinking about something else.
Same here for me. I listen while walking the dog. I live in an urban environment and its easy to get distracted and totally lose what’s going on. Usually listen at 1.5x so it’s doubly bad when I zone out.
This is a common issue with people who have ADHD. Source - Diagnosed at age 7.
