this post was submitted on 30 May 2025
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As someone who doesn't do this, I can only guess it's like holding your book mark parallel under the lines in a book as you read it, which I thought was fairly uncommon. Apparently a bunch of people read this way?
It makes more sense on monitors with large blocks of text or large paragraphs. With a monitor so big relative to a book, and scrolling making it easy to lose where you were, it can sometimes be tough for folks to read through huge chunks. Some people select chunks of text to help break up those monoliths into manageable bites along with putting a clear marker for where they are if they scroll or otherwise lose their place..
As someone who does occasionally do this, I don’t think it’s about readability. After all I also read books, which are not known for short bits of text in narrow columns. And I don’t use a bookmark, pen, or finger to keep track of where I’m at.
I think it’s more about keeping your hand busy, subconsciously even. Although to be honest I also don’t do that while reading books.
Maybe it’s a remnant of when every computer had a screensaver, and constantly moving the mouse meant keeping the screen alive.
From a usability, accessibility, and comfort perspective a book is incredibly different from a device that's blasting your eyeballs with highly contrasting light.
For the screens I'm using, a book page is way narrower than the standard text region of a screen.