"At least one fundamental human trait persists in the smartphone era: People seem to love a challenge. The internet teems with viral competitions, gamified health apps, and "life-maxxing" exercises of many kinds. Even those who resist the lure of screens-by, for instance, reading books-are frequently doing so with a kind of competitive zeal. A University of Pennsylvania professor has built a strict, rules-based classroom cult around reading."
"Hunter discovered that if you recalibrate a course to prioritize "developing a relationship" with authors and books (he eased up on writing assignments, for example), students will meet the challenge. After he swapped out short excerpts for full texts, his students "were reading everything, or most of it." They proved it by identifying obscure passages without notes (and, because he quizzed them in the classroom, there wasn't a chatbot within reach)."
People continue to enjoy challenges despite pervasive smartphone distractions, often channeling that impulse into viral competitions and gamified pursuits. Some readers approach books with competitive zeal, and one professor created strict classroom rules to drive reading. Recalibrating coursework to prioritize relationships with authors and easing certain assignments led students to read full texts and recognize obscure passages from memory. Classroom quizzing removed reliance on external aids and encouraged concentrated mental effort. Short-form reading strategies and flexible attitudes toward reading offer alternatives for busy readers who lack external structures or institutional enforcement.
Read at The Atlantic
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