However when it comes to reading anything it often takes me twice as long, just a meme with text or anything.

If I don’t concentrate on it I miss words or like an Ai hallucination I put random words into the sentence or muddle them around making things often hilarious for myself until I re read the text to get the actual meaning.

If you don’t have any medical issue (like, say, a need for glasses to compensate for your poor eyesight maybe? Or maybe you’re being dyslexic?) I would question your reading habits. And be assured that this has nothing to do with how smart you are, or anyone else.

You can easily measure how slow you are compared to other people around you and if it happens you’re much slower than they are without any medical explanation I would ask if reading is something you regularly do, or not, and if you have ever been taught how to actually read… properly? It’s a serious (and non-judgmental question, bear with my lacking English here).

I mean, one just don’t magically learn how to read one day while growing up. It’s a 100% learned skill, and a real difficult one at that. It’s also a lot of practice and the more one reads the better one becomes at it, the less one reads… it’s like learning a foreign language.

I’m well into my 50s and I’ve been reading since I was a little boy. I read every single day but I’m not a ‘gifted’ reader, far from it. I just have been taught how to properly do it and enjoy it (reducing the amount of effort required) and, as a child, I was required to read by my teachers at school as well as, a lot more as a matter of fact, by my grandfather and by my dad. I was literally required to read books. And then I was also lucky enough to have the opportunity to read great books and authors, and to see those adults around me always reading books and use them as the incredibly powerful tools and weapons they are. It quickly stop being a requirement for me to read, it became something I wanted to do.

Seeing how little kids nowadays are expected to be reading at school (if at all? Are we now at the point where some teachers will encourage kids to read the summary of a book instead of the book itself?), and seeing how seldom most of those kids will see any adult person around them ever open a book, it’s no wonder reading is quickly becoming a lost art. And it’s no wonder reading for most of those younger people is much harder than it’s supposed to be.

Imo, it’s also no wonder there are so much resources spend to distract those kids to ever become fluent readers… but that’s a whole other discussion.

If you’re in that situation (obviously, I have no idea), the good new is that you can easily change that. You just need to start reading more, and more regularly. And you need to be patient before you start seeing a meaningful change.

Are there specific topics or genres you’re interested in reading? If so, you can go to your local library and ask the librarians there if they would be able to suggest some books in that genre. Even better, if you have no idea yet on what you may be interested in reading, you can as easily go to your local library and explain your librarian you would like to start reading more and have no idea where to start. They should be more than happy to welcome and help a new reader find their bearings :)