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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

#161

Post by sul_tasto »

bee_rider wrote: post #115
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 kinda feel like we were trained to be maximally receptive in an era when information was just recently proven to be the most valuable thing, but also was still kinda rare. And then they just fucking dropped the information hose into our livingrooms and... now I'm blinded.

I think information is no longer the most valuable thing. Attention is. That said, I too am struggling. The dopamine response to new content is addictive, and I rarely keep the promise to myself to go back and extract the substance from the resources I discover.

Re: Internet addiction and the habit of book reading

#162

Post by keyle »

najqh wrote: post #137
klohto wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had the same experience but my problem was from the sheer amount of games being released. I couldn’t pick one, became overwhelmed and then lost the drive to try something. So I stopped worrying about the reviews, about length about all the details behind a game. I check out Steam 250 or SteamDB charts, pick one out and just try it. I have no expectations going in, and I’m happy to drop it if I don’t find it enjoyab…

Nah, doesn't work for me. I know the games I like; they are all old and I know I love them. I don't follow the news on new games at all. I simply can't concentrate on the games I like for more than 15 minutes. I get distracted, I alt-tab out all the time, and eventually I close them. It's the same with movies or books. It takes a superhuman effort for me to sit still and watch a movie. If anybody has any recommendati…

I feel related to this. I wish I had a way out to tell you but I can only provide comfort in the thought that someone else feels the same.

I think a big part is the constant dissatisfaction, that time is wasted, and I should be doing something more productive. I start a movie, I see where this is going, this is not even that great -> I should be doing something else... I play a game, I understand the mechanics, I see the grind ahead -> I should be doing something else...

It's a negative loop like doomscrolling a news site. Very few things are truly offline and I don't think about the time I'm wasting.

But computers, they give me the best, and they give me the worst of myself.

Re: Internet addiction and the habit of book reading

#163

Post by mark_l_watson »

What a great read! I am and author and I just emailed a link to three friends who write and my wife.

I guess the summary is just being mindful on how we spend our time, deep thinking rather than shallow reactive thinking, etc.

I use a service https://freedom.to to restrict access to much of the Internet except for specific times. I find this useful as well as the freedom.to podcasts and newsletters - really good material on using technology with purpose.

Re: Internet addiction and the habit of book reading

#164

Post by jihadjihad »

bambax wrote: post #46

Socrates famously hated the written form, not because it was technologically advanced for its time, but because it was "dead": you can't have a conversation with a piece of writing, or ask the author to explain something that's on the page. I disagree (and agree, indirectly, with the OP): deadness is a feature, not a bug. The problem with Internet writing is not just its addictive nature, it's groupthink. It is too m…

It reminds me of this short essay [0] I came across in Harper's a while back, which, at the time of publishing, was in a section devoted to the defense of books. I believe it's from 1999.

"[...] a treasured book is more important than a dance card, or the photo that freezes you in mid-teeter at the edge of the Grand Canyon, because such a book can be a significant event in the history of your reading, and your reading should be an essential segment of your character and your life. Unlike the love we’ve made or meals we’ve eaten, books congregate to form a record around us of what they’ve fed our stomachs or our brains. These are not a hunter’s trophies but the living animals themselves."

0: https://harpers.org/archive/2018/10/living-animals/

Re: Internet addiction and the habit of book reading

#166

Post by tclancy »

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…

But how much of that busier life is real and how much of it is a feeling from being online so much? I usually have a couple hours to myself at night and still wind up doing “Just one more crossword” or checking up on some sports team rather than shutting down.

Re: Internet addiction and the habit of book reading

#168

Post by mFixman »

rlt wrote: post #107

Millennials and especially Gen Z are thought to have higher rates of depression and anxiety than previous generations. I would be very surprised if social media weren’t a factor. Despite making a career in tech I believe some of what we’re doing is very harmful to culture, mental and physical health, the environment, and democracy. At some point I would like to focus on mitigating these problems.

Why could social media be a factor and not video games or movie streaming?

You are believing things without evidence and falling at the same old-person moral panic as "video games cause violence" or "D&D causes suicide".

Re: Internet addiction and the habit of book reading

#169

Post by vict00ms »

najqh wrote: post #137
klohto wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had the same experience but my problem was from the sheer amount of games being released. I couldn’t pick one, became overwhelmed and then lost the drive to try something. So I stopped worrying about the reviews, about length about all the details behind a game. I check out Steam 250 or SteamDB charts, pick one out and just try it. I have no expectations going in, and I’m happy to drop it if I don’t find it enjoyab…

Nah, doesn't work for me. I know the games I like; they are all old and I know I love them. I don't follow the news on new games at all. I simply can't concentrate on the games I like for more than 15 minutes. I get distracted, I alt-tab out all the time, and eventually I close them. It's the same with movies or books. It takes a superhuman effort for me to sit still and watch a movie. If anybody has any recommendati…

>I know the games I like; they are all old and I know I love them.

>I simply can't concentrate on the games I like for more than 15 minutes.

Maybe you should try playing something different. A new challenge might encourage you to concentrate more and/or build neuroplasticity, and you could find some satisfaction there.

Re: Internet addiction and the habit of book reading

#170

Post by mdp2021 »

jcun4128 wrote: post #109

I used to read a lot of books but now it is hard. Sometimes I can get into something and the pages fly. Often though I space out, my eyes move but I don't read the words, it's not great.

It takes discipline to return to active reading, to re-acquire the proficiency in automated reading.

> my eyes move but I don't read the words

That's also an understandable consequence of having become information scavengers, used to spend time trying to retrieve the important signal in the mass of noise. The information available in the formation years of many was structured in the essays ("careful pace") and breathing in the narrative ("flow and occasionally pick") - today facing "informational landfills" is much more common (this included, e.g., newspaper titles, with few exceptions). One should probably consciously scavenge the more loose texts, and return to a punctual reading of the more structured and reliable texts, after evaluating what kind of text one has in front - to use the type of reading that is appropriate.

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