Flow and longform reading. Notes from an exploratory case study

Abstract The decline in deep, longform reading is increasingly recognized as an emerging social problem. This exploratory study investigates the possible conditions influencing flow during extended academic reading sessions, in particular the role of digital devices in these processes. We observed university students in two reading settings: one with digital tools present and the other with only printed texts available. Drawing on perspectives from embodied and distributed cognition, our findings suggest that, in contrast to established theories of flow in reading, readers are not consistently immersed in the reading task throughout a reading session but instead fluctuate between various reading modes: they seem to battle with an uneasy ‘settling in-phase’, only later to emerge as focused on the text, even as bodily positions are changed. Towards the end of a reading session, bodily restlessness increases once more. Observations from case studies also showed that participants’ embodied engagement with the reading devices differ, as revealed during self-initiated interruptions: when reading in print, the reader would to a greater extent remain “on task” and continue reading during such interruptions. When reading digitally, the reader more often left the reading device idle on the desk. Our study contributes to the literature by suggesting that settling in requires time and effort, possibly especially in the presence of digital devices, and highlights the importance of addressing this process through more systematic training and focused attention. The settling-in phase is significant for how the reading unfolds. Further aspects of readers’ bodily enactment with texts seem to differ between paper and screens. Finally, our results suggest the need for future research to systematically examine bodily shifts and reading trajectories of extended reading in natural settings.