Let me start by saying that I love technology and social media and how it enables us to find out everything we need at the click of a button. Social networks and chats are making us communicate instantly and keep in touch with anyone anywhere in the world. A few characters and you are connected, updated, informed.

Then I received a newsletter this morning that both really annoyed me and made me stop and think. No, it wasn’t about politics, the economy or even the wretched alternative voting system…just a newsletter offering a discount for a product. The email I received carried a promotion for a Speed Reading Course. “Annoyed about speed reading?” I hear you say? Yes I am.

I don’t understand why people feel the need to learn to read faster. Surely reading is something to enjoy and take time over. The feeling of losing yourself in a book, or in an interesting article is…well…priceless. Even when reading something for business, I would prefer to understand it and take the time to read it entirely rather than just speed-read it.

‘I took a speed-reading course and read “War and Peace” in twenty minutes. It involves Russia.’ Woody Allen

I know we’re supposed to be living in a commercial world of 140 characters…time is money people, lets get to the point in as quick and clear a fashion as possible! But I don’t want to learn to read any faster, and I find it unhealthy the way our lives are being sped up in everything we do. I already live in one of the fastest and most chaotic cities in the World. I take a fast tube crowded with hundreds of people every morning to go to work, people rush past you in this crazy race to get to work, to get back home, to get out for a drink, you buy convenience food to eat quicker, you even take sleeping aids to get to sleep quicker! Everyone is rushing, all the time. Speed-reading, touch-typing, fast-food, and most fast things to me are all part of an unhealthy lifestyle and one of the biggest reasons for today’s increases in stress, anxiety levels, addictions and family breakdown!

I am not saying that all the things that are now available straight away are bad. On the contrary, as I said technology and social networks are making our lives easier and more connected and I love them for that! But I believe that it would be great to find the right balance and use all these amazing tools to keep us all up-to-date with what goes on but to use them in our own real time, rather than just succumb to the craziness of increased velocity.

Good, to-the-point, concise communication, yes. Speed-reading offer? Thanks, but no thanks!