Sosnoski Reading

The Sosnoski reading implied to me that hyper-reading is in many ways equivalent to text reading, only with a different structure. Each process involves the same characteristics, such as the filtering, skimming, etc. that Sosnoski describes in his essay.

Virtually, these two methods are identical in purpose and usefulness. As Sosnoski points out, an encyclopedia is much like an internet search engine. Encyclopedias require for one to physically search literature through keywords in an index. Similarly, search engines use keywords, except it does the searching. Another similarity is that of the methods of using the information, as I mentioned previously. Regardless of whether the text is on paper or on a computer screen, the reader will still use the same method of extracting information, whether reading every word or skimming, picking up phrases and keywords to piece together the meaning of the work.

After reading the essay, I feel that neither hyper-reading nor text reading is universally a better method for readers – as they say, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. For some, reading a hard copy will be more beneficial, yet others will nearly always choose to read their text on a screen. It varies from person to person, but the system still has the same purposes and processes involved.