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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

#231

Post by bluedays »

ivansavz wrote: post #223
the_af wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Re: 2, I find that listening to something (that is not music) while doing something else makes me zone out for one of the two activities. I tried listening to podcasts/conferences while coding, or listening to a zoom meeting while reading my email or doing work, and it doesn't work. I tend to zone out on the listening. If it was audio, I must rewind and listen to it again. If it was a zoom call... oh, well, "what wer…

True that — I can only combine the "speech input channel" in my brain with very low cognitive load tasks like data entry or doing the dishes. Interestingly, I've noticed that "can you understand the article while doing the dishes" is a very good test of the quality of a piece of writing. Whenever I lose track on the narrative repeatedly (I must stop the computer and restart from the beginning) it's usually a sign tha…

I have noticed I have the same issue, but I can play Minecraft while listening to something. So I spend a lot of time listening to podcasts while playing Minecraft.

I assume the same would be possible with audiobooks.

Re: Internet addiction and the habit of book reading

#232

Post by theNJR »

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…

1. Join a book club. Even with just two other friends. It holds you accountable and will force you to read most days. I often find myself aimlessly watching YouTube and reading Reddit comments at 8:30pm. It’s that bored stage of the daily social scroll where I’m not getting any novelty or pleasure. Then I realize I can read my book instead.

2. If you have a significant other, trying reading a short story out loud at night. My wife and I did this for a while and it’s awesome.

Re: Internet addiction and the habit of book reading

#233

Post by toper-centage »

Fannon wrote: post #65
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…

So I come from where you come from. However, I have mostly (60-80%?) retained my ability to focus on reading without distraction. But there has been something lost and sometimes it feels like an uphill battle to retain your ability to concentrate on one thing at a time. Would be curious what makes a difference here? I did some conscious choices, not sure how they contribute but I have the impression that each of them…

It's funny you place games in the "bad" side of things, this hich need to be reduced. I group gaming with reading because the kind of games I play require a level of focus and engagement, and my brain rather spend hours scroll HN and Reddit. It really is an uphill battle.

Re: Internet addiction and the habit of book reading

#234

Post by kqr »

zero_ wrote: post #130
kqr wrote: post #83

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 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.

I totally see what you mean. For the most part, I have no trouble deciphering the garbled equations on the Kindle based on context and general understanding and subsequent description. When I do struggle, I tend to fall back to the PDF to clear the confusion up.

Re: Internet addiction and the habit of book reading

#235

Post by lr4444lr »

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…

Can you get absorbed in a movie or binge watch a TV show? If so, I suspect your attention ability is still intact. You just need to re-practice consciously directing it again. I still struggle with it too, but was able to "get lost" in a book again. It was key though to move my phone way out of the room, and was hard to get started.

Re: Internet addiction and the habit of book reading

#236

Post by fma »

fma wrote: post #210

Decent comments and recommendations. I've started to purchase more physical books. But I have the same problem as when I purchase kindle books - they sit there. When I get the chance to read a book and get in, I find that I forget the content. In general I don't have a great memory, anyways. Even when I code, I generally can't tell you where a file is. I think through all the logical steps, from front to back to reac…

Oh I'll also say...one trick I've done sometimes is to read using the kindle app or if it's a PDF, xodo...where I can highlight. I treat it almost like I'm reading a website.

Re: Internet addiction and the habit of book reading

#237

Post by kashyapc »

kinghtown wrote: post #206
kashyapc wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Incidentally, this morning I finished reading the Socratic dialogue, 'Phaedrus' [1]. At the end of the dialogue (and also in a couple of other dialogues), Socrates makes his famous rebuttal against writing: You know, Phaedrus, writing shares a strange feature with painting. The offsprings of painting stand there as if they are alive, but if anyone asks them anything, they remain most solemnly silent. The same is true…

After reading a few of the dialogues, love reading these BTW, I highly suspect that Plato often misrepresented Socrates- would often put words in his mouth. With that said.. I think it’s very OK for Socrates to be wrong or to disagree with him. He’s the kind of guy who would change his opinions in light of conflicting evidence or an iron clad logical argument. Just because he said that about writing doesn’t mean he’s…

I forgot to add: Socrates actually does sort of say that even writing is okay—as long as you're doing it in the right spirit (seeking truth) and are not deceiving your audience.

In the Phaedrus, Socrates rails against the "speechmakers" who don't truly know what they're talking about, but instead write based on "what is likely" to persuade the audience.

And yes, in the later dialogues (e.g. the Republic), many scholars agree that Plato used Socrates as his "mouthpiece". I don't care either way, they're insanely fun to read.

Re: Internet addiction and the habit of book reading

#238

Post by 4monthsaway »

I was a voracious reader as a child all the way until I got to university where I had to consume incredibly dense tomes of the most boring subjects known to man. It took me a while to get into the habit of being able to consume 10-15 of those a year. I did it. But it forever killed my thirst to read anything afterward that wasn't consumable within 30 minutes. The great irony of this...I write for a living now.

Re: Internet addiction and the habit of book reading

#239

Post by 6gvONxR4sf7o »

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…

I like the irony that most people probably didn’t read the article (or hardly ever read the articles) and yet agree that the content they find on HN must be so deep and that we’re special.

Re: Internet addiction and the habit of book reading

#240

Post by dash2 »

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #230
dash2 wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish there were a community that people could move to where everyone agreed they wouldn't be on their smartphone. Maybe we could fix up some shacks in the hills and ensure we are out of 4G range.

Put a jammer in your house? Then you could live there and not have to move.

The point is that a whole group has to do it together. See the GP.
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