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Internet addiction and the habit of book reading

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Re: Internet addiction and the habit of book reading

#61

Post by Barrin92 »

wincy wrote: post #36
senortumnus wrote: post #22

HN represents a wellspring of deeper reading than is generally afforded by the current entertainment cruft portals of the web - reddit, FB, insta, USA today, financial times, etc etc down to the SEO hellholes of recipe sites, youtube product placement; you get the idea. Let's appreciate HN for the quality of reading material and its curb on our drift to the rest of the 'popular' web. And I don't think I'm alone in al…

I used to read books all the time. I spent most of my waking hours as a teenager reading books. I’m 35 now and can barely hold attention on anything, I read maybe 3 books a year if I’m lucky. Even on Hacker News I almost exclusively read and comment on the comments, not the actual article unless I see someone says “have you read the article?” I don’t really know why. I have 8+ hours a day screentime on my iPhone, whi…

This was the exact realization that I had. At one point I noticed that when I was 16 I could sit down with a 500 page book and read it in one sitting while as an adult I can't concentrate even for 30 minutes.

Feeling stupider than my teenage hormonal self was honestly so embarrassing I just forced myself to read an hour per day without distraction and only work with everything else turned off except for music. It's better now but I still feel like years of constant internet multitasking and browser tab-switching have fried my brain somewhat

Re: Internet addiction and the habit of book reading

#62

Post by senortumnus »

anoncow wrote: post #57
wincy wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to read books all the time. I spent most of my waking hours as a teenager reading books. I’m 35 now and can barely hold attention on anything, I read maybe 3 books a year if I’m lucky. Even on Hacker News I almost exclusively read and comment on the comments, not the actual article unless I see someone says “have you read the article?” I don’t really know why. I have 8+ hours a day screentime on my iPhone, whi…

Somethings that helped me - 1. Delete frequently visited websites in chrome on Desktop and mobile and populate it with websites that you want to visit more frequently. 2. Create a new profile on YT and subscribe to channels you like that add value. 3. Keep a separate work phone. 4. Keep your personal phone away for certain times of the day 5. Read a book that you have been waiting to read on a dedicated Kindle or in…

#1 is a big thing - delete your links to FB, reddit, whatever it may be. Diminish your portals to the engineered attention sucks out there.

I aspire to a separate personal phone vs work phone. Have a lightphone but have not set up separate numbers for work & personal so I can't yet fully unplug from work when desired.

Re: Internet addiction and the habit of book reading

#63

Post by [deleted] »

betwixthewires wrote: post #35
klyrs wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah... but if I want to actually read a book, I need to put my phone in another room. It's honestly embarrassing.

I'm the opposite, if I'm staring at my phone for hours on end I'm probably reading a book. I have a respectable library right here in my hands right now. But I do get what you're saying, I've had a problem with dicking around on Reddit before, for a couple of years I spent beyond productive amounts of time on that site.

[deleted]

Re: Internet addiction and the habit of book reading

#64

Post by jrmg »

cosmotic wrote: post #4

What does the author think people are doing on the internet? At least some are reading.

At least some are reading.

But are we _thinking_?

I find that there’s something about reading a book that is more ‘calm’ than reading online. I think it’s the knowledge that switching away from it is a ‘chore’. If I get distracted, I’m likely to look into space and think for a moment, then return to the page, because I can’t just reach for the address bar and start typing.

Re: Internet addiction and the habit of book reading

#65

Post by Fannon »

wincy wrote: post #36
senortumnus wrote: post #22

HN represents a wellspring of deeper reading than is generally afforded by the current entertainment cruft portals of the web - reddit, FB, insta, USA today, financial times, etc etc down to the SEO hellholes of recipe sites, youtube product placement; you get the idea. Let's appreciate HN for the quality of reading material and its curb on our drift to the rest of the 'popular' web. And I don't think I'm alone in al…

I used to read books all the time. I spent most of my waking hours as a teenager reading books. I’m 35 now and can barely hold attention on anything, I read maybe 3 books a year if I’m lucky. Even on Hacker News I almost exclusively read and comment on the comments, not the actual article unless I see someone says “have you read the article?” I don’t really know why. I have 8+ hours a day screentime on my iPhone, whi…

So I come from where you come from.

However, I have mostly (60-80%?) retained my ability to focus on reading without distraction. But there has been something lost and sometimes it feels like an uphill battle to retain your ability to concentrate on one thing at a time. Would be curious what makes a difference here?

I did some conscious choices, not sure how they contribute but I have the impression that each of them helps a bit:

* Not using social media and treating messengers more like email. A real-time conversation may happen, but does not need to.

* I (mostly) avoid browsing news sites where there is endless scrolling / content. I try to mostly read and almost never comment (as this makes me curious on what the reactions on it are)

* I bought a Kindle to read without distractions. It's in airplane mode most of the time, too.

* I separate my work and private equipment

* Only play games casually and sometimes not at all for longer periods of time. I mention this, as games usually have "optimized" on (rather quick) reward feedback and I can imagine that this is very similar as social media in some sense.

Re: Internet addiction and the habit of book reading

#66

Post by knaik94 »

bambax wrote: post #48
standardUser wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's like saying we have a driving addiction or a going to work addiction. Not everything can or should be couched in that kind of language. I've always found articles about internet and game addiction to be incredibly myopic, assuming that the "normal" of the 60's or 70's or 80's is somehow universal or worthy of being preserved, and that any deviation from it is an illness.

Addiction exists, though. I often browse Twitter for no particular reason. Six months ago I changed my year of birth for something like 2017 because I was annoyed it was compulsory. That resulted in an immediate suspension, as Twitter forbids minors to use it (rightfully so); the suspension would only be lifted if I submitted an ID. At first I thought "who cares?" But then I found myself in want of browsing the (few)…

The addiction isn't to twitter. You feel like you will miss out on some important information if your access to twitter is blocked. You aren't browsing for no reason, while browsing a part of you has decided this is the best use of that time. Whatever else is going on isn't important enough to care about more than you care about seeing if there's new tweets.

If the people you follow stopped posting on twitter at the same time you changed your birthday, would you have cared about getting it restored? Valuing and caring about tweets people have sent isn't the same as being addicted to twitter. Maybe the problem is how much you value seeing those tweets the moment they are tweeted.

Re: Internet addiction and the habit of book reading

#67

Post by allenu »

dougmwne wrote: post #17

An aside, I find it a bit interesting that at some point we stopped talking about internet and game addiction. It used to be a hot topic, but I guess now that we are all completely addicted after decade of intense behavioral experimentation, none of us are interested in reading about it anymore.

I remember about 10 years ago or so, smartphone addiction was something we talked about as well. People looking at their phones during dinner out was something we consciously called out. Now, it's such a normal thing that in commercials you see families depicted as all staring at their own devices like it's no big deal. Streaming services and internet providers promote bingeing of TV shows as well.

During the pandemic, my internet usage has been through the roof. At all hours of the day I'm online. It's really my only regular social outlet. It's weird how quickly norms change around you.

Re: Internet addiction and the habit of book reading

#68

Post by knaik94 »

betwixthewires wrote: post #32
standardUser wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's like saying we have a driving addiction or a going to work addiction. Not everything can or should be couched in that kind of language. I've always found articles about internet and game addiction to be incredibly myopic, assuming that the "normal" of the 60's or 70's or 80's is somehow universal or worthy of being preserved, and that any deviation from it is an illness.

I understand what you're saying. Still though, you drive to get places or for fun sometimes, some people do it for sport for a living, but you don't find yourself just compulsively driving 8 hours a day. There are people that do find themselves staring at a phone 8 hours a day. The word addiction might be thrown around a little too loosely than it should be, but there's definitely widespread addiction to social media…

Staring at a phone doing what? Swiping to refresh on social media for hours and hours at a time?

Using a phone is like going to the library, what you do there is what actually matters. Checking social media can be thought of as asking a librarian what new books are in. If you're asking every minute of every hour for 8 hours, then I can see that being a problem. But that's not really how people use the phone. You check email, you read news articles, you look at posts from friends on fb or instagram, you interact with people in a comments section, you take or share pictures, you have music or video essays playing to help you focus on work, you message coworkers, coordinate a meetup in a group chat, among other things.

I don't find it comparable to being a couch potato and watching TV all day. That analogy falls apart because watching TV isn't an interactive exercise.

Re: Internet addiction and the habit of book reading

#69

Post by frosted-flakes »

bentcorner wrote: post #45
wincy wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to read books all the time. I spent most of my waking hours as a teenager reading books. I’m 35 now and can barely hold attention on anything, I read maybe 3 books a year if I’m lucky. Even on Hacker News I almost exclusively read and comment on the comments, not the actual article unless I see someone says “have you read the article?” I don’t really know why. I have 8+ hours a day screentime on my iPhone, whi…

I'm the same way. As a teen I'd sit down with a several hundred page book and spend an entire day reading the whole thing. These days I spend my spare time on reddit/HN or gaming (which I did in my teen years as well). Much less reading, although I aspire to read more and have a long backlog on my Kindle. Maybe I'll commit to reading an hour a day or something. I certainly have the free time. In fact, I'll start now.…

My experience matches those of others in this thread. I barely read anymore and find it difficul to focus. Largely, my tastes have calcified and narrowed quite a lot. I used to be an adventurous reader and always tried random books I saw on the library shelves, but these days I find it difficult to get into something new, and if I do read a book I've probably read it before.

I think if I just start reading it'll come back to me. Starting is the hard part. So like you I may as well start now instead of browsing HN. An hour a day is more than doable given how much time I waste here and elsewhere.

Good luck!

Re: Internet addiction and the habit of book reading

#70

Post by knaik94 »

SavantIdiot wrote: post #28

"e-mail address was for professors what the cellular phone was for their students: a sign that they were ahead of the game." What tech flair these days makes you look "Ahead of the game?". For me it's either: (a) using an MCU for a substantial project that isn't an Raspberry PI or Arduino (hello STM or NXP). (b) a github repo that proves I know how to use Jest, Nuxt, ESLint, Grunt, Gradle, Gulp, or some combination o…

I think how many stars a github repo that you created or are a major contributor of is an interesting tech flair these days. Being a early/top adopter/contributor on places like stack exchange and reddit is good too. It's probably easier to tell in hindsight.
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