Internet addiction and the habit of book reading • Hacker News Board

Re: Internet addiction and the habit of book reading

#81

Post by aero-glide2 » Sat, Dec 18, 2021, 7:07 AM UTC

Zircom wrote: post #74

betwixthewires wrote: post #29

I actually read more books now. I download them and load them up on my phone and read them like crazy. Also discussions on sites like this have expanded my articulation and understanding of many concepts and topics. I spent a lot of time, years, dedicating a significant potion of my life to reading educational material of all sorts. I don't know if I use the internet differently, maybe, I don't use Facebook or twitte…

I bought a Kindle and that was nice, but I'm terrible at remembering to bring it with me when I leave the house, and the (admittedly small) effort of having to connect it to my computer to load epubs onto it is enough friction to stop me from doing it in the first place a lot of the time. I usually obtain them from less than legal sources and buy a hardcopy if I like it. For awhile I was buying ebooks straight from t…

Last time I used a Kindle, you could just email a book to your Kindle email address and then the book would appear in the library. Much easier than physically connecting to copy books.

Re: Internet addiction and the habit of book reading

#82

Post by makeitdouble » Sat, Dec 18, 2021, 7:14 AM UTC

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.

These two could have made sense if at the time we had a very solid grasp about the two topics, their place in society and their real impact. But the “addiction” label was thrown around at a time of uncertainty as they were too new, with a huge scoop of “back in the days” rhetoric.

There must be people studying actual internet and game addiction, but it won’t make headlines as much as it will be for actual pathological behaviors, affecting the few people that need actual treatment.

The same way we’ll probably have a flurry of “VR addiction” panic articles in the next years, that dies down when we get to better understand the topic.

Re: Internet addiction and the habit of book reading

#83

Post by kqr » Sat, Dec 18, 2021, 7:16 AM UTC

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…

> 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 used to be this way too. Then I just started reading again and now I can't stop. The trick for me -- which might be circumstantial and not related at all -- is an e-reader I always carry on my person, and an unlimited free books policy from my employer.

Sometimes I only get a few minutes of reading here and there. Sometimes there's a few hours at a time. But it's on the level of when I was a child and teenager again.

I mean, I still don't, generally read the article because the comments on HN are often higher quality. But the books I read are even higher quality.

And the things I've learned from mathematical, financial, systems theoretical, organisational, political, anthropological, and technical literature has really taken me places.

Re: Internet addiction and the habit of book reading

#84

Post by baxtr » Sat, Dec 18, 2021, 7:20 AM UTC

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…

You’re comment resonates a lot with me. I used to read many books and now just mindlessly browse the internet. I feel like a zombie at times.

At the same time, I’ve never read as much as today. I get inspire by people like you living at the other side of the world. This new world we live in has definitely pros and cons.

Re: Internet addiction and the habit of book reading

#85

Post by tinyhouse » Sat, Dec 18, 2021, 7:21 AM UTC

hardwaregeek wrote: post #79

tinyhouse wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> tech workers and we have to face facts that tech workers are predominantly white and Asian and male In the US at least many tech companies have way more Indians that white. It's funny to me how Indians in the US are usually not in the white/asian conversation, and even often put in the "people of color" group. Just shows most people think race is about skin color.

I view it as Indian ⊆ Asian ⊆ people of color. I agree that Indians are often neglected in the Asian discourse, although I think there's been more work to include non-East Asians in the conversation lately.

The term people of color is bad and shouldn't be used. We shouldn't classify people into group of colors. When people see an African American person they are likely to have different bias about the person than when they see an Indian person. The bias is not about the skin color, it's about the group the person belongs to. Another example, Indians and African American have completely different issues in the US. Indians have great representation in academia, all top professions (tech, medical, law, etc), live in rich suburbs, etc. Racism against Indian people is usually from anti-immigrants people. African Americans have bad representation in everything I just listed and racism against them have nothing to do with immigration. In the US at least, the Indians and white groups are much closer to each other than Indians and African Americans (obv I'm generalizing here, even white is way too broad as a group).

Sorry for digressing on the topic here...

Re: Internet addiction and the habit of book reading

#86

Post by redisman » Sat, Dec 18, 2021, 7:26 AM UTC

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…

The first step is to admit you have a problem.

I’ve been through many addictions and nothing will happen until you look at yourself and the negative effects it’s having on your life and mental state and say “enough”.

Re: Internet addiction and the habit of book reading

#87

Post by mrslave » Sat, Dec 18, 2021, 7:33 AM UTC

> In an essay he published in The Guardian (which is by now removed from their website, following a massive Twitter campaign against the novelist mainly because of his opinion on techno-consumerism), titled “What’s Wrong with the Modern World?”, American novelist Jonathan Franzen wrote:

For the curious, the removed article is here: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/sep/13/jonathan-franz... and archived here: https://web.archive.org/web/20130915070641/http://www.thegua...

Re: Internet addiction and the habit of book reading

#88

Post by tinyhouse » Sat, Dec 18, 2021, 7:35 AM UTC

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…

One comment about only reading the HN comments and not the article. I usually do the same. I think that's the nice thing about HN. The commentary can be more interesting than the article. Also some articles are way too long to read when you're browsing HN and not really in "read mode".

Re: Internet addiction and the habit of book reading

#89

Post by Brajeshwar » Sat, Dec 18, 2021, 7:35 AM UTC

If one wants to read more and willing to try few ideas, here are few that works for me and our family.

- Have physical books always around — at your desk, bookshelf, bedside table, etc. My current ratio is roughly 1:4 of physical against Kindle.

- Read multiple books at a time.

- If you get bored, don’t feel like finishing a book; let it go. May be you can come back to it later.

- Always try to carry your Kindle or other readers with you on your Uber/Lift/Ola rides, Train/Metro/Planes, etc.

- Or buy at-least one copy at the start of your flight, and try books that you can finish off in that leg of the flight. Personally, I try to give it to a random stranger on the way out, “It was a good/awesome book. I have finished reading it, please go ahead and read it.”

- I don’t care who read my blog but I try to publish/write few lines about the books I read on my blog. Have been doing it for a few years now.

## Kids Rule;

- There is no limit to how much books (digital or physical) my daughter can ask me to buy as long as she finish reading the last one.

- If she can't or don’t want to finish the last book, wait for one week to pass.

- She gets ₹100 for every book she finishes regardless of genres but ₹500 for any non-fiction documentary-ish like a biography of a great person.

Of course, there is nothing entertaining/social on my phone.

Re: Internet addiction and the habit of book reading

#90

Post by 123anonanonanon » Sat, Dec 18, 2021, 7:49 AM UTC

hardwaregeek wrote: post #77

I'm not in the whole anti-Internet camp, indeed my viewpoint is far closer to Randall Munroe's[1]. But it is a little sad how few of my peers read books. I just finished three volumes of the Robert Caro series on Lyndon Johnson along with The Power Broker. Now, granted, these are big tomes. They also cover a topic that most people would not find interesting. Yet I still find it very depressing how almost all of my pe…

I’ve read The Power Broker. But to be honest, I don’t remember much.