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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

#261

Post by andai »

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 think much in the same way that heroin makes the ordinary pleasures life of life seem completely irrelevant by comparison, the supernormal stimulus of the web browser does the same thing for books.

Re: Internet addiction and the habit of book reading

#262

Post by sosuke »

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…

Try listening to books and articles. Worked great for my I’ve past 370 trash novels this year. I listen to everything at 2x and slow things down when I hit a new concept.

Re: Internet addiction and the habit of book reading

#263

Post by emptyparadise »

BrianOnHN wrote: post #188
seaman1921 wrote: post #185

Very productive discussion here with lots of tips shared here. I am grateful that HN is one of the places which still feel worth the time spent. I would like to share my own thoughts as well.. Personally, my weakness is video-games and I have lost the ability to stop playing once I start. Gaming sessions usually last for hours and hours until I feel satisfied (Doesn't matter whether I am winning or losing). I tried s…

We haven't scrutinized video games enough after the "video games cause violence" myth was debunked. Hands down the biggest addiction among my friends in their late 20s and early 30s. The problem is that none of them see it that way. They take breaks from "known" addictions (alcohol, cannabis) repeatedly, only to still fail to reach their goals, without ever acknowledging the gaming issue.

Doesn't help that every product is trying to be as addictive as possible these days. All the psychological devastation of hard drugs and none of the euphoria.

Re: Internet addiction and the habit of book reading

#264

Post by 8ytecoder »

jimmygrapes wrote: post #98
frosted-flakes wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

One thing that seems to have helped some of my friends who have experienced the same issue of not wanting to read anymore is to find one particular book or style they liked before and go deep into that author's backlog or similar styles. And to add to that, don't be afraid of reading pulpy fiction; you're not trying to impress anybody with what you're reading, you're doing it for yourself. Enjoy it. Read young adult…

May I suggest the Expanse series. It’s I think a good “split the difference” book series. Not too pulpy, not too intellectually straining that I’m struggling to hold my attention like a Neal Stephenson book either.

Re: Internet addiction and the habit of book reading

#265

Post by bulochka »

I dont understand this anti-digital-books attitude honestly. The books themselves are just paper. What really matters is their content. And everyone can read the same content on their phone.

Having this in mind, how is reading an EPUB any worse than reading a hardcover (besides personal preference)?

Re: Internet addiction and the habit of book reading

#266

Post by synergy20 »

The answer is yes, we're reading much less and the trend will stay.

Our brain will adapt and evolve, eventually, our brain is more of a browser to search info quickly, it will offload the deep thinking or memorization gradually to the internet/searchc-engine/metaverse/whatever collectively.

Re: Internet addiction and the habit of book reading

#267

Post by pm90 »

seaman1921 wrote: post #185

Very productive discussion here with lots of tips shared here. I am grateful that HN is one of the places which still feel worth the time spent. I would like to share my own thoughts as well.. Personally, my weakness is video-games and I have lost the ability to stop playing once I start. Gaming sessions usually last for hours and hours until I feel satisfied (Doesn't matter whether I am winning or losing). I tried s…

I doubt what I say might be helpful here, but in the spirit of sharing…

I grew up severely addicted to video games. My parents didn’t buy me a PC until I was in college, and so I would befriend anyone in school who had a PC and was willing to let me play/ take turns in playing. It was pretty insane now that I think back… I didn’t even mind watching others play, I just loved video games so fucking much.

In college, the semester I did get my own machine, I got Cs in most of my courses (while I had been a mostly A and some B student in previous semesters). I returned my machine to my parents in the hopes of improving my grades, but I would just borrow a laptop from a friend and play anyways.

I didn’t get a console for the longest time as an adult.

However when I saw a pretty great game on a PlayStation at a friends place, I was hooked and bought it. The addiction was back: couldn’t stop playing until I completed the game; I barely got by with other things while I played.

However, I guess my life got more interesting so there were other things that I really liked doing too. But If there is a really cool game, I will get it, and the rest of my life takes a backseat while I complete it. During the pandemic, I went really hard for factorio and would spend hours upon hours in the game, to the point that I was dreaming in designs for solving problems in the game.

Today, I would say I have a good relationship with video games. When a new game is released that I find interesting, I am hyped. I’m very upfront about this to my coworkers and my manager, that I might be less productive because a game is coming out. Sometimes I take time off just to immerse in the game completely.

I’m happy that I have a somewhat healthy relationship with gaming today. I couldn’t have gone through the pandemic without video games… and some games are just so good, there are moments from these that are very memorable. I know not everyone may be able to get this balance, I guess I’m just happy I was able to because I really love gaming. As a socially awkward teen, it provided me an amazing escape and I latched on to it really hard. As an adult, I still love the feeling of escaping reality, of total immersion in a story, in a different universe.

Re: Internet addiction and the habit of book reading

#269

Post by pm90 »

BrianOnHN wrote: post #188
seaman1921 wrote: post #185

Very productive discussion here with lots of tips shared here. I am grateful that HN is one of the places which still feel worth the time spent. I would like to share my own thoughts as well.. Personally, my weakness is video-games and I have lost the ability to stop playing once I start. Gaming sessions usually last for hours and hours until I feel satisfied (Doesn't matter whether I am winning or losing). I tried s…

We haven't scrutinized video games enough after the "video games cause violence" myth was debunked. Hands down the biggest addiction among my friends in their late 20s and early 30s. The problem is that none of them see it that way. They take breaks from "known" addictions (alcohol, cannabis) repeatedly, only to still fail to reach their goals, without ever acknowledging the gaming issue.

What kind of goals is it preventing them from reaching?

Re: Internet addiction and the habit of book reading

#270

Post by stinos »

chickenpotpie wrote: post #42
acchow wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You go to the next book to read in the same way you click on the next link on the web.

Yes but with substantially more friction. I have to stand up, walk over to my bookshelf, go through my books, grab one, sit back down, and start reading vs click

have to stand up, walk over to my bookshelf, go through my books, grab one, sit back dow

You can treat that as a chore, or as something exciting. Pick the latter and it's not really friction anymore, in that it's enjoyable friction: there's a certain expectation I get from picking the next book, encountering something I haven't read for ages and remembering how good it was.

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