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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

#121

Post by BlueTemplar »

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…

HN, while being a step up the likes of reddit, is still a shallow, compulsive activity.

Which I've been engaging into a bit too much (yet again) in the past days.

So I guess that I can thank this article as I will now "log out" and do something more productive with my life.

Re: Internet addiction and the habit of book reading

#122

Post by najqh »

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.…

These days, I can't even concentrate in games or media such as movies. I wish I could, because I remember having lots of fun playing games. Oh well.

Re: Internet addiction and the habit of book reading

#123

Post by aurea »

rmbyrro wrote: post #118
aurea wrote: post #114

Having failed to truly "disconnect" in the past, my recommendation in order not to be distracted by the internet is to first and foremost write down everything that you would have the urge to google. Instead of googling it, put it on paper, and continue your activity. Once you are done you can review the points that you have wrote down, and think whether they are really worth pursuing. And if they are: stop right the…

The first part makes sense. Not to distract and interrupt a productive activity. But the second part just seems pointless improductivity, doesn't it? I mean, to counter lack of exercises due to excessive use of cars, you would at times avoid it. But not every time, when you really can benefit from its speed, safety and comfort.

I see the fact that searching for the information without the internet (or electricity in general) is more difficult as a filter to select what is relevant and discard the noise. In these cases I simply accept that I need to pick what I want to focus on.

But I am in no way advocating for a 100% electricity free lifestyle, nor am I saying that one should ditch all modern technology. Something that I do are offline days [1] during which I try to apply what I wrote about here. On other days it will depend on the urgency of the task itself.

You can of course also apply only the first part (noting down things to search later). Whatever works for you ultimately.

[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/OfflineDay/

Re: Internet addiction and the habit of book reading

#124

Post by politelemon »

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…

> 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.

HN _thinks_ it represents a wellspring of deeper reading just like every other site mentioned also thinks. Same as the others it is a shallow echo chamber, and reading through TFA it's pretty easy to see the behaviors described being here too. We should not fall into the hubris of assuming we are 'better' than others.

Re: Internet addiction and the habit of book reading

#125

Post by Hendrikto »

hardwaregeek wrote: post #71
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…

Okay I do like HN—I'm here for a reason after all—but it is flawed like any other curation. For one, I find that it veers extremely literal and nerdy. For some topics such as programming and math, this is wonderful, as programming and math are both topics where literalism and nerdiness are required. But in some cases this blend is not great. I wouldn't put HN as a great place to get your knowledge of more social, cul…

> predominantly white and Asian and male, indeed predominantly cis-hetereosexual male

What I appreciate about HN is that we don‘t make everything about race, gender, and politics, for no reason.

Re: Internet addiction and the habit of book reading

#126

Post by wccrawford »

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 also used to read a lot more books when I was younger, and for a while, I read only a couple a year as well.

And then I started reading at bedtime. Sometimes that's 10-15 minutes, and sometimes it's an hour. However long it takes to get sleepy.

Now I read about a dozen books a year, and if a book really grips me, I'll read it during the day at times, too.

Re: Internet addiction and the habit of book reading

#127

Post by wccrawford »

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.

We didn't stop, it just stopped being a hot media topic. I still see threads about it on reddit (and sometimes HN) at least once a month, and probably more like once a week.

Re: Internet addiction and the habit of book reading

#128

Post by jwdunne »

brewdad wrote: post #101
camillomiller wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very relatable list. Kindle also really ignited my love for reading again this year. I think it tricks my brain a bit into thinking “oh, it’s an electronic device anyway” :D Another thing that helped, was a bit of a challenge with my partner, reading books in bed together, and having reading dates, when we would just snug on the sofa reading each other their own book.

I really like the idea of a reading date but I also know that neither of us want to read or hear every detail of what the other is reading. Our book interests are quite divergent, although we do enjoy sharing an interesting passage or description of what we are reading every now and again.

Me and my partner have fallen into this pattern too, down to sharing interesting passages from whatever ebook we’re reading. I’ve read more books in the past month than I have the entire year!

Re: Internet addiction and the habit of book reading

#130

Post by zero_ »

kqr wrote: post #83
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 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 ca…

Usually this kind of literature are however more similar to university textbooks for which I prefer to read them as PDFs on the iPad as my Kindle tends to mess up the formulas and figures if you get them in an Amazon Ebook format.

Sometimes you get a PDF from Amazon to begin with, for which I find the the Kindle a subpar experience.

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