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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

#361

Post by Brajeshwar »

hiq wrote: post #257
Brajeshwar wrote: post #89

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 o…

> - 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. Are you sure that's a good idea? At least at one point, pecuniary incentives for children for "good" behavior were considered harmful to their education, but maybe that has changed.

That was how it started (I think about 2-years ago) with that rule but now it has become normal, and are more lumpsum. She doesn't care much and she is more into reading something over and over again, and would usually point things out to me in extreme details. So, no longer a hard rule or a motivating factor.

Re: Internet addiction and the habit of book reading

#362

Post by quake »

osense wrote: post #250
aw9f70gae wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What kind of games? I’d like to stop playing addictive games and start playing games that are better for my mind.

I would recommend The Long Dark and Sable. Heavily focused on exploration and immersion. But really any game with an open world that doesn't hold your hand too much and lets you make your own choices.

I picked up Sable on a lark (also because I saw the Moebius-inspired art style and immediately fell in love). It's a fine game that you can tell was a labour of love by only a handful of people, for better and for worse. It hit that same vein of open-ended exploration that Breath of The Wild has and the same feeling of constant discovery the latter game has in its early hours. I do wish that Sable was less utopic, with dangers in the wild dunes from creatures or weather hazards, but that wouldn't work with the art style and doesn't make sense with the narrative. It's a great game, even if you can get around the often-janky flight model of the hoverbikes and bugs like occasional clipping into the environment.

Re: Internet addiction and the habit of book reading

#363

Post by DarylZero »

Paul_S wrote: post #146

While the article veers a bit all over the place at its core it's about a topic I have given a lot of thought to - relationship between information form and content and our expectations. I still read books but I'm very against fetishising them. I don't understand the emotional connection with paper, typewriters and the general attitude that medium destroys the content. What I think happens a lot is the old correlatio…

> Unfortunately, due to factors outside of those dictated by form, it so happens that books are better, even though they are limited by their form.

I think you've got this backwards: it's the "form" that dictates youtube videos must always target the lowest common denominator, target absolute beginners, use clickbait approaches to topic selection, and spread content thin to increase number of videos.

(The "form" not being merely video, though, but the overall platform: the feed algorithm, the userbase, the thumbnail popups, etc.)

Re: Internet addiction and the habit of book reading

#364

Post by DarylZero »

hirako2000 wrote: post #156
Paul_S wrote: post #146

While the article veers a bit all over the place at its core it's about a topic I have given a lot of thought to - relationship between information form and content and our expectations. I still read books but I'm very against fetishising them. I don't understand the emotional connection with paper, typewriters and the general attitude that medium destroys the content. What I think happens a lot is the old correlatio…

Interesting counter balance. I still think what makes books perceived as more valuable is based on a actual facts that comes out of this medium: barrier of entry. It takes serious dedication to author a book. Writing over 100 pages on any subject takes dedication, ability to organise thoughts, multiple reviews and editing passes. Most other media don't require this level of dedication and abilities to formulate valua…

People who make woodworking videos on youtube are putting in a lot of work though. It's very professionalized.

The amount of effort (money, space, equipment) that would be required to compete with these professional youtubers is a substantial barrier to entry, though of course it's easy enough to make a non-competitive video.

Re: Internet addiction and the habit of book reading

#365

Post by fastssd »

hypertexthero wrote: post #253
aw9f70gae wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What kind of games? I’d like to stop playing addictive games and start playing games that are better for my mind.

Anything, including any game, can become addictive. As one of the aphorisms at Delphi said, “Nothing to excess”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Know_thyself Having said that, there are many games that are more respectful of the player, with quieter user interfaces without design dark patterns to keep you hooked. Here are some suggestions: *Microsoft Flight Simulator* - Fly around Earth, preferably at a low to medium a…

Don't know why you're being downvoted. I thought difference of opinion was appreciated here, unlike Reddit.

Re: Internet addiction and the habit of book reading

#367

Post by fknorangesite »

politelemon wrote: post #124
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…

Hah, I know, right? Few things make me roll my eyes quite like HN's general sense of self-satisfaction.

Yes, I realize I'm here too.

Re: Internet addiction and the habit of book reading

#368

Post by int_19h »

FWIW, the Internet and modern electronic gadgets are the best thing that happened to me when it comes to reading more. My reading list is now long enough to last me a year (and keeps growing), and I can just whip my phone out and read whenever I'm waiting for something.

Re: Internet addiction and the habit of book reading

#369

Post by smugglerFlynn »

dr_kiszonka wrote: post #334
smugglerFlynn wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Atomic Habits is an excellent book, highly recommend it to anyone struggling to fix patterns of behavior. I’ve started to curate any environment I use to avoid unintentional triggers. For example, when you reach for your iPhone to open up Medium or Kindle, you are forced to see all the different notifications and home screen icons. If there is a social media app or Safari icon happen to be there, your craving to open…

Maybe Kindle app should have a notification dot until we read some number of pages on a given day?

Interesting idea! Most productivity apps have some kind of a nudge built-in (for example, DayOne sends periodic reminders and even writing prompts to keep you journaling). It rarely works for me, though, as they pop up at times when I’m focused on something else.

What usually works is a physical reminder that something I have planned to do is not complete. Two examples:

- For a couple of years I had that large sticky note posted on my fridge on which each day I would draw a stick every time I drank a glass of water. Simply seeing this note with no sticks drawn for particular day was enough of a motivation to drink my recommended daily number of glasses. I made sure an empty glass was always strategically positioned nearby. I had many attempts to track that electronically, with reminders and such, but only after reading Atomic Habits I was able to design this simple ‘off-the-grid’ solution, and it just worked.

(I have since stopped tracking exact number of glasses, but I still set an empty glass on my kitchen counter, which is enough to trigger my habit and drink more every time I see it)

— Similar thing with vitamin D which I take during the winter. At my kitchen table I have this pill case with seven transparent cells per each day of the week, so any time I go to the kitchen and notice the case, and it’s not empty, it motivates me to take this day’s pill. Just keeping a bottle full of pills on the table was not enough to build a habit, but as soon as I made “lack of progress” visible, it worked.

Re: Internet addiction and the habit of book reading

#370

Post by kingcharles »

a_bonobo wrote: post #201
moffkalast wrote: post #186

> I sometimes wonder what will happen if the internet gets suddenly shut down worldwide? Will hundreds of millions of internet addicts go down the streets protesting, and possibly overthrowing their governments? That is downright laughable. So much hinges on the internet these days that society would literally grind to a halt even without considering anything non-essential. Databases offline, communications down, sup…

If you can, give Tim Maughan’s Infinite Detail a try. It's SF on what would happen if the Internet disappears, and goes quite deeply into collapsing supply chains.

Wait, that's a book? With like pages? And words? That I have to read?
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