Why Does Every Internet User including UDS students Skims and Scans Texts Online

Online reading

Reading that is, looking at written symbols,characters and,texts and drawing meaning from them was mostly done in printed medias such as books, newspaper,etc. But now, everyone reads on the Internet. The question is; why does every Internet user  skims and scans a lot but less active reading? Let's consider these:

• Jacob Nielsen's eye tracking study from 2008 showed that less than 20% of the text content is actually read on an average web page.

• Steve Krug also pointed out in his book 'Don't Make Me Think' that one of the most fascinating thing about Internet readers is that they don't read, they scan

•  Our behavior of skimming and scanning online has an effect on how we read and comprehend novels,books and others in a printed form.Researchers say

Enough of these! The question still stands. In this article, you will discover the reasons why you scan and skim read online everyday.

 Before that. what is skimming?

Skimming  is a method  of speed reading applied when you quickly read through a text in order to find the main ideas,keywords or phrases in it.
During skimming, you read:

• The title
• The first paragraph or the introduction
•  Any leading or sub heading
• You notice pictures, charts or image
• You always check bolded, coloured and linked texts.

Scanning also  is a process of speed reading a text just to get the main meaning or find a specific information. During scanning, you only read a specific piece of text relating to your purpose.
Why more skimming and scanning online? 

Source credibility

The internet is a home for everybody-the school drop-out, the Minister of State, the President,the professor, etc. I mean anyone  can publish information online with or without any technical knowledge of the subject. So the judgement whether a piece of  an information is from a trusted source, encourage online readers to skim and  scan  a text online to get a gist of of it before active reading for comprehension. You also like How to read online and benefit more .Content writers however, know this and as a result makes the page more scanable.

Information overload
This refer to a situation where there is too much of an information to be digested  at a given period of time. Internet users have a  common purpose, that is, to obtain a greater volume of an information within the shortest possible time. Online writers are however aware of this. So they make available much information that can't be digested within the shortest period of time a user has stipulated. They do this by creating internal and external links to articles of similar interest to the user. The user therefore, is faced with the question;how can I marshal all these information within this limited time? The answer comes right away, skim and scan. So sooner or later, you see the user scrolling from top to the bottom, following links,etc just to get an overview. The fact is; deep reading can never be made when there is a pressure to digest more information with a limited time.

The  screen in itself tends to encourage skimming and scanning

It is no doubt that the design of our computer screen,tablets, ipads,mobile phones and others tend to encourage skimming and scanning behavior. For when we scroll on a screen during an online reading, we tend to read quickly and less deeply than the traditional ways of flipping or moving from a page to a page of a book or any other printed media. This has become even more serious with the emergence  of smart devices with touch screens. When you scroll on a screen, chances are that; it will move a bit below or  a bit ahead of the exact text you were reading. The probability that you will go back to read that text is very low. And so you skim and scan all your way leaving out more text.

[Related:A tip for UDS students, how to boost your reading habit]

Time factor 

This is also a reason why  most people prefer skimming and scanning method of reading to deep reading online.  Let's face it! The more hours you spent on social media sites, the less productive you become and more money you will pay too. A typical example, supposing you buy an internet package or bundle or even buy a browsing time at the cyber café,will want to use all . No. For this seems
uneconomical.  You will obviously diverse a proper means of making the most with that limited time by scanning and skimming.

Money factor

 Whenever time appears, money must follow. Money can make many things happen. So it is a perfect enabler. Every internet reader is greatly concern about how much does it cost reading online?  Because it will cost more by deep read king more online in relation to time, the user therefore chooses to skim and scan to save  money.So now, you you have discovered the  reasons why you skim and scan everyday reading online.
[Related: Top 8 importance of Deep reading]