Eyercize - Speed Reading Helper
Speed Reading - Heads Up
Some of you have probably heard at one time or other about speed reading, the ability to read and process lots of information rather quickly. Reading quickly would be useful to EVERYONE, whether for academic (Lecture notes, assigned readings, etc.), work-related (Contracts, orders, etc.), or social (Facebook/Twitter feeds) purposes. By learning how to speed read you can even improve your retainment of the information you've read (Has your mind ever wandered off while reading and you realize you have no idea what was written in the last paragraph?), speed reading makes you focus more, so retention comes along almost hand in hand.
One Shining Case
A famous example is Kim Peek, the mega savant that inspired the movie "Rain Man," who could read a whole page of text in seconds with a recall rate above 90%...He could also read two pages simultaneously, one with each eye, but that's another topic all together. While you might not be able to learn to read that fast, it is definitely possible to increase your reading speeds by two, three, or more times than you currently do.
Eyercize
I came across Eyercize and consider it one of the best speed reading programs I've found online for free and without a heavy ad presence. This site lets you choose several fairly standard aspects of a reading: Words per minute, words per fixation, fixation points, font size, space in between words, and number of lines showing. The best part of this program (besides the free/minimal ads) is that it is really easy to use on an every day basis. There is a bookmark feature that lets you automatically view highlighted text in the speed reading program. This allows reading Wiki articles to hit two learning birds with one knowledge enhancing stone.
Practical Use
In order to make the most out of this program you should...start using it! If you're on the computer for a couple of hours a day then consider how much time you spend reading. Any time you see a chunk of text, be it a Wiki article or a news article, consider reading it with Eyercize. If you continue to use the program you'll be surprised at how much faster you'll be able to read in no time at all. In this technological age even the ways that we read are changing, Eyercize is just one of many programs dedicated to improve our ability to keep up with these changes.