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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

#291

Post by kurthr »

toper-centage wrote: post #233
Fannon wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Based on the context, it would appear that he is referring to mobile games like CandyCrush and their ilk, "games usually have "optimized" on (rather quick) reward feedback and I can imagine that this is very similar as social media in some sense". I don't think that refers to the NYT Crossword puzzle.

Re: Internet addiction and the habit of book reading

#292

Post by maxdo »

I've been in the same spot as lots of people here. I started doing some changes.

I started to practice meditation, with no guidance and no bs like headspace. Real meditation is exercise on how to focus on what makes you happy and avoid any thoughts in the process. Basically find a focus point to watch, or close eyes , count, if you have a thought - start counting again.

I deleted social media. All of them. the only one left is youtube. Even for youtube I have two profiles one for work, where I search only tech related stuff. I still had to curate and spend ~3-4 hours to delete, remove from recommendations everything.

I installed app called Lock. That literally block all the apps on the phone for defined amount of time.

Meditation + deleting everything makes you rethink of what is really important to you. Every of this new youtubers looking at you offering to watch a new review about Travel, Space, Tesla, Ecology, News , anything you think is interesting.

You start see social media producers and their real relationship with YOU in a different way. They eat a lot of your time. Don't Believe ? check screentime. They bring you very little real value. You just watch another stupid episode with mediocre value you barely even able to share with friends to make them interested.

They all fight for your attention , once they grab it, they will try to monetize this attention to sell you something.

Another side effect of this relationship is separation of interests. Since there are a lot of them, they tend to go into not very crowded topic. While it's good, it creates more and more bubbles you can get into. I like EV's my friend still own an ICE car? Our content will be different. We will be laughing different jokes. And that's happening in hundreds of dimensions.

Now ask yourself a question, do you really want to have a relationship, when the best person knows you is algorithms of TikTok/Youtube. Because that's what they created for... This also leads to disconnection from society offering you more and more curated content about your phone brand, car brand, space company, travel style , food, anything you wish.

Without a mental model to resist such trend you're done as a fully integrated to society individual.

Re: Internet addiction and the habit of book reading

#293

Post by shauryamanu »

Zircom wrote: post #74
betwixthewires wrote: post #29

I actually read more books now. I download them and load them up on my phone and read them like crazy. Also discussions on sites like this have expanded my articulation and understanding of many concepts and topics. I spent a lot of time, years, dedicating a significant potion of my life to reading educational material of all sorts. I don't know if I use the internet differently, maybe, I don't use Facebook or twitte…

I bought a Kindle and that was nice, but I'm terrible at remembering to bring it with me when I leave the house, and the (admittedly small) effort of having to connect it to my computer to load epubs onto it is enough friction to stop me from doing it in the first place a lot of the time. I usually obtain them from less than legal sources and buy a hardcopy if I like it. For awhile I was buying ebooks straight from t…

I do own a kindle but reading from it is so unattractive over reading from the Hard copy. Has anyone here tried audible? Are audiobooks good? I've read a few audiobooks, but it still can't match reading from the hard copy.

Re: Internet addiction and the habit of book reading

#294

Post by watwut »

Apocryphon wrote: post #282
watwut wrote: post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe the real question, why do you want to do thise things? Because games and movies don't matter that much, really. Nor do books, really. You dont need to force it. Try something else. Try different hobbies to spend time with. And also, old games are not as good as nostalgia has us remember. Maybe you are alt tabbing, because the books you ate picking, movies you watch were good for past you. And now your interests…

You make a good point, and I think there is fear in that the hobbies that we used to enjoy get replaced by something less substantive, even less “productive” - scrolling for endless content, engaging in short-term meaningless comment threads like this, consuming information that the brain forgets within hours.

Yes, but also it can be signal that old hobbies are not right for changed lifestyle, changed experience and so on.

Re: Internet addiction and the habit of book reading

#295

Post by Apocryphon »

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.

As an aside, I wonder if we’ve missed out on longer term repercussions of violence in video games, after the hysteria of video games causing violence turned out to be false. You’d think immersing people in unreality for extended amounts of time could have a desensitizing effect. Sure, there’s violent movies and other media, but the degree of immersion feels like it should make a difference. And I’m still weirded out how kids these days can get an elementary familiarity with real-life weapons not from gritty adult FPS like Doom, but the cartoony Fortnite.

Re: Internet addiction and the habit of book reading

#296

Post by pitspotter2 »

joshink1 wrote: post #165

Dopamine exhaustion from over-stimulation may be a reason for the common “can’t focus” complaints. Dr. Huberman claims that he has treated this with dopamine budgeting, information diet, etc…: https://youtu.be/QmOF0crdyRU

Yes. Dopamine is the mediator of the brain's seeking system, SEEKING being one of the seven emotional drives, according to Jaak Panksepp and Mark Solms. The full list of instinctual emotion systems comprises SEEKING, LUST, PANIC, GRIEF, RAGE, CARING and PLAY.

https://www.therapyroute.com/article/what-is-emotion-by-m-so...

Seeking makes a cat play with its prey before eating it. Presumably the exercise of skill and the risk of losing lunch make the overall process more satisfying.

What might be the reading equivalent? Something like having to track down one's target book in an elaborate and interesting library, complete with secret rooms and hidden shelves (this being an analogue of the internet). In the process one risks being tempted and distracted by other volumes and other authors...

Re: Internet addiction and the habit of book reading

#297

Post by fouric »

Mezzie wrote: post #189
bee_rider wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Yeah. As somebody who's always had a strong interest in archiving, information organizing, and information persistence, this is certainly... an era. It's so hard to stop, and it's a lot harder when my personal life is so intertwined with the things I'm professionally/intellectually interested in. For example, I'm fascinated by how people on TikTok conceive of the algorithm and the mutual push-pull of category definit…

> How the hell do I explore that without spending 2 hours derailed by fun history facts? Answer: I do not.

Actually, the answer is "train your brain". Nobody's forcing you to get distracted and start clicking/tapping on other things - you're taking the actions yourself.

Now, of course, TikTok is designed to pull you in as much as possible, but ultimately it's still completely manageable. The maximum addictiveness of the internet (and adjacent things) is still not even comparable to that of hard drugs, and people can quit those.

It can be hard (depending on brain chemistry and how deep you're in), but it's doable, just like starting an exercise habit, quitting smoking, or learning to control video game use or eating habits.

Re: Internet addiction and the habit of book reading

#300

Post by dnsco »

a_bonobo wrote: post #207
mrslave wrote: post #87

> In an essay he published in The Guardian (which is by now removed from their website, following a massive Twitter campaign against the novelist mainly because of his opinion on techno-consumerism), titled “What’s Wrong with the Modern World?”, American novelist Jonathan Franzen wrote: For the curious, the removed article is here: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/sep/13/jonathan-franz... and archived here: htt…

Is there any source as to why it was removed? The OP says it was because of a 'massive Twitter campaign' but I can't find no source on that. I can only find some lukewarm Reddit discussion, it seems to just be a bad essay? https://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/1mcuva/jonathan_fran... or see this review https://observer.com/2013/10/bigmouth-strikes-again-what-in-...

This piece argues he was an early symbol/scapegoat in the conversation around equity in the literary world. I found it to be pretty sympathetic and enjoyable.

https://www.vox.com/platform/amp/culture/22691692/jonathan-f...

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