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If You Quit Social Media, Will You Read More Books?

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Re: If You Quit Social Media, Will You Read More Books?

#21

Post by esperent »

ekjhgkejhgk wrote: post #11

To me, yes. Well, I've never been on "social media", but e.g. at night before bed some times I scroll on HN for a long time before falling asleep (30min-1hr). If I commit myself not to, I read instead. The thing we should be talking about is forms of entertainment, and social media is just one type of entertainment. We should be discussing pros and cons of different forms of entertainment. Instead the discussion is "…

I believe that reddit and HN are social media. They're a different form than Facebook or TikTok, but we come here to be social just the same.

If someone used HN to find interesting articles, then spends 90% of their time reading the articles and only comes to the comments briefly to see that other people think, then it would be fair to call HN a news aggregator site for that person.

But realistically, for most people, it's the opposite - 90% of time chatting with people in the comments, with the actual articles (or even just their titles) mostly just used as conversation starters, with the conversation often veering into wildly different threads that barely relate to the original topic. That's social media.

Re: If You Quit Social Media, Will You Read More Books?

#22

Post by mrweasel »

patates wrote: post #8

I quit social media many years ago and to answer the question: No, I just watch Youtube. If I could stop watching Youtube, I'm totally sure I'd finally be able to read books again /s The problem is the award delay. In Youtube, I get my "award" in 10 minutes max. Starting to enjoy a book requires 1-2 hours investment, and the award can be anything between 1 and 10 in a scale of 10 (while median being more like 7), and…

Social media never really caught my interest, so quitting made zero difference to anything. I do want a fair bit of YouTube for periods of time, then almost nothing, and instead read a ton of books for a few months and then switch back.

I really want to swap out the YouTube part of more programming, but I find that I need at least an hour or so of quiet time before my brain sort of switches mode and can start enjoying it, so it's harder to get started on and disturbances quickly snowballs into not getting anything done.

Re: If You Quit Social Media, Will You Read More Books?

#24

Post by estearum »

dgb23 wrote: post #17

This might sound stupid or obvious to some, but I found a way to read books more frequently: Read multiple books at once. For some reason, I read more often and am more motivated when I can switch between books. When I tried to focus on just one, I always got the feeling that I sort of have to read it and that turned me off. Another issue is that I read very slowly and think a lot when reading books, but that's appar…

Yeah I've found success similarly always having one non-fiction and one fiction book at the same time.

Re: If You Quit Social Media, Will You Read More Books?

#26

Post by ekjhgkejhgk »

nottorp wrote: post #9
reallyaaryan wrote: post #4

Yes, because you can only be bored for so long. My brain would require some stimulation or imagination. Toughest phase would be the withdrawal.

They used to talk about the importance of being idle for creativity...

Yes!! It's incredible when I go on holiday and intentionally put myself in really boring situations for like 2+ weeks, I start having random ideas. This is absolutely true.

The cynical in me even wonders if this isn't by design in capitalism. If you're really busy all the time you won't be having ideas and be a better worker.

Re: If You Quit Social Media, Will You Read More Books?

#27

Post by technothrasher »

johnisgood wrote: post #10
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #7

Yes and no. I read a lot, but in "bursts." My iPad is full of books; many that I have read, many that I have yet to read. But I use most of my free time writing software. I also tend to do that in "bursts." Haven't looked at Facebook in many months. Never did Twitter/X. In fact, the only place I spend much time online, is ... here . Most of my karma is from comments, not submissions. So I guess I don't get out much.

Pretty much this. I literally don't out much [out of my house]. I would not, even if I had no MS and had no mobility issues. I am being here, cozy, writing software. When I am not writing software, I just watch a movie, and then I write software again, and the cycle repeats. It is bad for your health though, especially mine. We should at the very least do some exercises at home.

> I just watch a movie [...] We should at the very least do some exercises at home.

I bought a treadmill and do not allow myself to watch TV shows or movies I really enjoy without being on said treadmill. It makes me look forward to the exercise, and it allows me to "double up" the time spent by doing two things at once.

Re: If You Quit Social Media, Will You Read More Books?

#28

Post by jhrmnn »

ekjhgkejhgk wrote: post #11

To me, yes. Well, I've never been on "social media", but e.g. at night before bed some times I scroll on HN for a long time before falling asleep (30min-1hr). If I commit myself not to, I read instead. The thing we should be talking about is forms of entertainment, and social media is just one type of entertainment. We should be discussing pros and cons of different forms of entertainment. Instead the discussion is "…

Same here. And while I may be on HN for a long time, I would fall asleep within minutes of a (good) book. Which tells me something about these two modes of entertainment

Re: If You Quit Social Media, Will You Read More Books?

#29

Post by apprentice7 »

phantasmish wrote: post #20
ekjhgkejhgk wrote: post #11

To me, yes. Well, I've never been on "social media", but e.g. at night before bed some times I scroll on HN for a long time before falling asleep (30min-1hr). If I commit myself not to, I read instead. The thing we should be talking about is forms of entertainment, and social media is just one type of entertainment. We should be discussing pros and cons of different forms of entertainment. Instead the discussion is "…

At one job where I was under-worked but had my back to a major walkway and to my manager’s glass-walled office I put Project Gutenberg txt files in a terminal and any time I might have looked at HN, I did that instead. Three novels in three months.

That's genius ?? Gonna try this starting right now as I'm at work scrolling through HN, lmao

Re: If You Quit Social Media, Will You Read More Books?

#30

Post by nottorp »

ekjhgkejhgk wrote: post #26
nottorp wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They used to talk about the importance of being idle for creativity...

Yes!! It's incredible when I go on holiday and intentionally put myself in really boring situations for like 2+ weeks, I start having random ideas. This is absolutely true. The cynical in me even wonders if this isn't by design in capitalism. If you're really busy all the time you won't be having ideas and be a better worker.

Brave New World asked that question in 1932.

IMO everyone should read it once, alongside with 1984.

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