How does reading and watching it in your mind’s eye change anything from just watching it on a screen?
I prefer audio books because it allows me to critically think better during because I can listen and think at same time, but reading words takes more brain power.
aphantasia - the inability to voluntarily create mental images in your mind’s eye.
I guess this extends to reading? I wasn’t sure if that would count as “voluntarily” since it just seems to happen for me.
I read to my kids every night and if there is a movie of the book we’re reading, I will finish the book with them before we watch the movie. In this way, the images they have in their minds as we read are theirs. Sometimes interesting things happen in your mind when it needs to create its own images and I think this is a personal part of reading and one reason why reading is not just consumption but also a creative act unto itself.
Once Hollywood has made Jennifer Lawrence the protagonist, that’s all you’ll be able to see ever again.
However none of this would apply in your case so read or watch or listen however works best for you. Personally I find audiobooks a terrible way to read. My mind wanders instead of focusing more on the text. I realize I’ve been thinking about someone else for several minutes, and ultimately don’t retain as much from the book in the end. It’s like “having the tv on in the background” while doing household chores. That’s fine for stuff I don’t really care about, if I just want to relax and divert my mind. But if I really want to enjoy the book and get everything I can from it, I need to read it.
I’d equate it to baking a loaf of bread from a recipe.
If I had the recipe read to me while I was make it I could focus 100% of my attention on making the bread.
If I had to watch a video I would have to watch, pause, then complete the step. If I was reading the recipe I would have to read a step and then do it. My attention would become broken in ways.
If I knew how to make the loaf I could listen to an audiobook while making it. There’s no way I could read a book while making it.
That’s probably very different from person to person, since its different how well they can parse heard words and seen words. For me hearing is way faster, but I’m also more likely to confuse sounds than characters.
We usually think in linguistic concepts even when reading a book, one of the most difficult things to do with a student when they are learning drawing is teaching them to really see instead of thinking of linguistic traits. I have aphantasia and it is difficult for me to recall visual traits so instead i focus on visual recipes, or construction while drawing. It is difficult for me to recall faces for example but if i reduce a face to geometric shapes and proportions and do a lot of trial and error so i can approximate a face I’ve seen.
So when reading is not that I am seeing things, but i am making a conceptual map, an abstraction. Kinda like how dreams are like stories we tell ourselves to the point they might seem like intangible images. Sometimes I feel my brain relate stuff i read to things i’ve already seen, or builds some conceptual bridge between known concepts to unknown ones.
But reading is also a practice on itself different than hearing. Language has aesthetics, rhythm character. I feel i learn more about the aesthetic beauty of language by reading it on the page than hearing it on an audio book because it forces me to build that bridge between my horizon of understanding and the authors’.
This is especially true for authors that have an entirely different background than me because to understand them i need to read slower and research. Something that audio books doesn’t allow with it’s predisposed presentation.
I don’t think this is very related to phantasia… With a book you can stop and think about things (imaginatively or critically). With video your entire attention is captured and it’s quite difficult to step away from the narrative being presented. In my experience audio is somewhere in between, and I’m able to zone out on my own tangent sometimes (but this is annoying, because I miss things)
I do too, and I didn’t know it was different for others until I was an adult. When I was young they used to guilt trip me for wasting my intelligence because I hated books.
I grew up inspired by creative world building shown in movies like LOTR and in games. I read more than most people, but it’s never books.
I hate how so many people fail to consider others might not have the same perspective or needs.
I get as much enjoyment from technical books that I read for career and personal reasons as I do fiction, so I usually read non fiction as it at least has a purpose for me. I wonder how much is related to my not being able to visualize anything.
I have aphantasia.
How does reading and watching it in your mind’s eye change anything from just watching it on a screen?
I prefer audio books because it allows me to critically think better during because I can listen and think at same time, but reading words takes more brain power.
aphantasia - the inability to voluntarily create mental images in your mind’s eye.
I guess this extends to reading? I wasn’t sure if that would count as “voluntarily” since it just seems to happen for me.
I read to my kids every night and if there is a movie of the book we’re reading, I will finish the book with them before we watch the movie. In this way, the images they have in their minds as we read are theirs. Sometimes interesting things happen in your mind when it needs to create its own images and I think this is a personal part of reading and one reason why reading is not just consumption but also a creative act unto itself.
Once Hollywood has made Jennifer Lawrence the protagonist, that’s all you’ll be able to see ever again.
However none of this would apply in your case so read or watch or listen however works best for you. Personally I find audiobooks a terrible way to read. My mind wanders instead of focusing more on the text. I realize I’ve been thinking about someone else for several minutes, and ultimately don’t retain as much from the book in the end. It’s like “having the tv on in the background” while doing household chores. That’s fine for stuff I don’t really care about, if I just want to relax and divert my mind. But if I really want to enjoy the book and get everything I can from it, I need to read it.
There’s really no difference in the medium or different methods of transmission. It’s possible to imagine the same.
I am very interested in thst condition, if you want to tell about it, like you can not imagine anything really or with some limits or whatever.
I guess it’s a matter of preference, because in my mind there’s no way listening takes less brainpower than reading.
I’d equate it to baking a loaf of bread from a recipe.
If I had the recipe read to me while I was make it I could focus 100% of my attention on making the bread.
If I had to watch a video I would have to watch, pause, then complete the step. If I was reading the recipe I would have to read a step and then do it. My attention would become broken in ways.
If I knew how to make the loaf I could listen to an audiobook while making it. There’s no way I could read a book while making it.
That’s probably very different from person to person, since its different how well they can parse heard words and seen words. For me hearing is way faster, but I’m also more likely to confuse sounds than characters.
We usually think in linguistic concepts even when reading a book, one of the most difficult things to do with a student when they are learning drawing is teaching them to really see instead of thinking of linguistic traits. I have aphantasia and it is difficult for me to recall visual traits so instead i focus on visual recipes, or construction while drawing. It is difficult for me to recall faces for example but if i reduce a face to geometric shapes and proportions and do a lot of trial and error so i can approximate a face I’ve seen.
So when reading is not that I am seeing things, but i am making a conceptual map, an abstraction. Kinda like how dreams are like stories we tell ourselves to the point they might seem like intangible images. Sometimes I feel my brain relate stuff i read to things i’ve already seen, or builds some conceptual bridge between known concepts to unknown ones.
But reading is also a practice on itself different than hearing. Language has aesthetics, rhythm character. I feel i learn more about the aesthetic beauty of language by reading it on the page than hearing it on an audio book because it forces me to build that bridge between my horizon of understanding and the authors’.
This is especially true for authors that have an entirely different background than me because to understand them i need to read slower and research. Something that audio books doesn’t allow with it’s predisposed presentation.
I don’t think this is very related to phantasia… With a book you can stop and think about things (imaginatively or critically). With video your entire attention is captured and it’s quite difficult to step away from the narrative being presented. In my experience audio is somewhere in between, and I’m able to zone out on my own tangent sometimes (but this is annoying, because I miss things)
I do too, and I didn’t know it was different for others until I was an adult. When I was young they used to guilt trip me for wasting my intelligence because I hated books.
I grew up inspired by creative world building shown in movies like LOTR and in games. I read more than most people, but it’s never books.
I hate how so many people fail to consider others might not have the same perspective or needs.
I get as much enjoyment from technical books that I read for career and personal reasons as I do fiction, so I usually read non fiction as it at least has a purpose for me. I wonder how much is related to my not being able to visualize anything.