I was reading a book when I came across the word ‘sniggered’. I picked up my phone to check its meaning. I ignored a few WhatsApp notifications but got drawn to the Instagram ones. I opened the app and found myself watching a reel of a panda falling off a tree branch, climbing back up, only to fall again. Naturally, I scrolled down to see more. Sent a few reels to friends, got a few back. A reel for a reel, that’s the new Bro Code. Minutes, hours, maybe even days went by, and I still hadn’t looked up the meaning of ‘sniggered’. (By the way, it means to laugh disrespectfully or mockingly.)
But I convinced myself I’d learned a few things. After all, I did watch reels that taught me that self-care was actually conceptualised by Audre Lorde, and that one track, The Life of a Show Girl, apparently disses Charli XCX. That counts as reading, too, right? Gaining information and all that. I also read a long New York Times article about an author who spent three days in complete darkness. So what does that make me? Have I met my reading quota for the day? Have I stimulated all the brain cells that are supposed to be stimulated?
Maybe that’s what reading looks like now, scattered and somewhere between curiosity and distraction. I like to think of myself as the ‘Lost in Translation’ type, the one who forgets what she set out to do but still discovers something along the way. So what are the different types of reading in this digital age? Let’s find out!
The Deep Diver: Your Brain on ‘Inception’
The vibe: This is your brain in slow, delicious, single-task mode. It’s reading a physical book or a long article from start to finish, diving layer by layer into a complex world. This is ‘vertical’ reading. You are going deep, exploring the dreams within dreams of a narrative.
The brain boost: This isn’t just cosy. It’s cognitive calisthenics. Studies show that reading printed text helps you focus better and understand more complex ideas, especially under pressure. It builds your “attention span” muscle and creates ‘deep time’, a state of flow uninterrupted by pings and scrolls.
Expert says: Vidya Padmanabhan, faculty of Journalism at MOP Vaishnav College for Women, explains the curated charm of this approach. “The vertical reading of a newspaper assumed a hierarchy of editorial judgment: you trusted that professionals were curating the stories, sequencing them, and giving them context.” It was a guided tour of the information world.
Bottom line: The deep diver is your brain’s best friend for understanding complex stuff. It’s a full, satisfying meal for the mind.
The Skimming Scroller: Your Brain on ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’
The vibe: This is your brain on fast-forward, zipping through a multiverse of information. It’s the endless scroll through social media feeds, the quick skim of headlines. This is ‘horizontal’ reading, you’re skimming the surface across infinite realities, grabbing bits of information without ever settling in one.
Reality check: This isn’t inherently evil; it’s how we process information. With most of us having smartphones, it’s the default. But the habit is strong. Chennai educators see kids hooked on devices, leading to clubs that act as a ‘reading gym’ to pull them back to books.
The brain drain: The problem is the training. Vidya warns that “skimming-based reading, while efficient in some ways, it trains the mind to favour immediacy over deep inquiry.” You become a master of spotting what’s new and shiny, but “lose the ability to grapple with complexity.” It’s a diet of informational confetti.
Bottom line: Brilliant for navigating the chaos of the modern world, but terrible for digging down into what matters.
The Social Reader: Your Brain on ‘The Social Network’
The vibe: This is reading as a team sport. You don’t just read an article, you read the reactions to it — the quote-tweets, the hot takes, the memes. The story becomes a social event and a full-on drama.
Expert says: This is where the original message can get lost, like in the case of Chinese whispers. Vidya points out: “The story is no longer read on its own, but through the distorting lens of reaction — likes, retweets, sarcasm and outrage.” It can create echo chambers where we only hear opinions we already agree with. She calls it “performative reading”, where sharing is more about signalling your tribe than understanding the issue. Sam, a social scientist, adds a nuanced perspective, noting that while filter bubbles are real, the desire for community isn’t new. “I don’t think this is a new phenomenon. It does definitely create echo chambers, but I think that was very much there even before. We just didn’t call it using those terms.”
Bottom line: Social reading can be fun and communal, but it can also twist the message, turning every news story into a comment section drama.
The info snacker: Your Brain on ‘The Fast and Furious’
The vibe: This is reading in bite-sized, punchy chunks. Think Instagram captions, text-heavy memes, or one-line updates. It’s the literary equivalent of a series of sharp, witty skits, quickly consumed, often hilarious, but gone next morning.
Reality check: For many, this is reading. Sam observes a trend beyond skimming, driven by sheer overload. “Because of oversaturation and overwhelm, people just stop consuming news. Most people I ask say if it pops up on my page, I see it or consume second hand.” It’s a case of information overload leading to a news shutdown, where we prefer a quick, funny summary to the heavy main story.
Bottom line: Snacking is fine and often fun, but you can’t live on it. A diet of only micro-reads can leave your brain hungry for substance.
The way forward
Neither the book nor the feed sits on a moral high ground. Both are tools, shaped by how we use them. Reading is evolving, experimenting with rhythm and layout to help readers navigate complexity without being overwhelmed by noise.
But evolution brings its own dilemmas. How much change is too much? Where do we draw the line between clarity and compromise? Vidya sees it as a necessary tightrope walk. “Adapting to reader habits is essential for survival in a digital ecosystem,” she says. But she draws a hard line. “Accessibility must not slide into oversimplification.”
The goal is to use snappy formats as a gateway to depth, not to flatten the story itself. From an educational standpoint, this hybrid approach is crucial. Digital platforms are changing literacy, training brains for speed and multitasking. The solution isn’t to reject digital reading but to supplement it. It’s about building what we could call ‘Reading Range’, the ability to switch gears consciously.
Sam suggests, the solution lies not just in format, but in compelling narrative. “For deeper engagement, then definitely narrative structure is what I would say... But unfortunately, that too would be simply putting a band-aid on a gaping hole because the problem stems from elsewhere...from constant access and just flooding of information all the time.” Vidya’s advice for cutting through the noise is to focus on clarity, integrity, and a compelling voice.
In the end, it’s not a war between fast and slow reading. It’s a question of appetite. Our minds have learned to feast in fragments and linger in chapters. The trick is to know what kind of story you need at this moment. Is it a snack for the scroll, or a meal for the mind?
[Written by Diya Maria George of The New Indian Express]
