Visualizer's bias and reading exposure general question
I was wondering if anyone else shared an experience similar to mine or if I am just projecting. Growing up, I internalized not being able to visualize things in my head as a sign that I was not really good at reading literature. This was influenced by English teachers, friends, family, and more. I grew up in an environment where pleasure with reading was depicted as enjoying a mental movie. I never got "lost in the world" because I was just staring at the words on the page. I even remember seeing tiktoks downplaying the experience of seeing words on the page as well for example. Since I was never able to do that, I think that I internalized that I could not read for pleasure. So instead I read things not for pleasure but for utility, such as factual content. I'm wondering about the situation for others with aphantasia — if their environment influenced whether they read for pleasure or not. I'd assume if you grew up in an environment that lacked potentially harmful visualizer bias, you would read the same amount as people who can see. This is all just speculation, of course. I only comment on this because I only started to enjoy reading once I knew what aphantasia was and approached pleasure reading from a different lens. Any input would be nice!