For about a year back in 2003-2004, I only had dial-up internet, no TV, and no social media (because it didn't exist yet). It was the most productive and creative time of my life. Then I got broadband, and I never reached those highs again. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
If You Quit Social Media, Will You Read More Books?
31–40 of 99 posts
Re: If You Quit Social Media, Will You Read More Books?
#32This was my plan, but then I just switched to lost of chess.com
I recently got a digital chess board (Chessnut Pro), game changer. It’s like an ereader for chess.
Re: If You Quit Social Media, Will You Read More Books?
#33To 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 find it strange that people don't consider HN as social media. I guess the distinction is that you don't usually directly interact with other users, but it has user-generated content, link uploading, very frequent updates, and voting — it ticks many of the same boxes, imo.
Re: If You Quit Social Media, Will You Read More Books?
#34Yes 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.
Same here. I used to be on classic social media (e.g. FB) but never went overboard with it. I reeled even that in to almost nothing more than 10 years ago. But other things filled that void before reading did. Other hobbies, family, kids, work, you name it.
So my reading is in bursts too now, on a plane, on a train, on a bus, on a ferry... in the hospital... You get the gist, in places where I'll be stuck for some time and need more than the usual "HN bite" for a few minutes every hour. And I adjust my reading speed and choice of book so I can actually finish withing the allotted time or else risk forgetting everything by the time I next have a slot. I read Daniel Suarez' Delta-v in ~5-6h because that's how long I had on the 2-way ferry ride.
My challenge with books vs. social media is that social media is like fast food but a book is like a gourmet meal. I can't read a book a few minutes at a time while on the toilet, or in public transport. Last time I did that I ended up in the middle of nowhere, 15min after we left the city, where the train stopped for a planned workers strike. But I can post a comment on HN just fine in 3 minutes and be done with it. So if the choice is 3h locked in somewhere with nothing but my mobile I'll choose to read. If I am at home with 1000 options, almost anything else will necessarily win.
Re: If You Quit Social Media, Will You Read More Books?
#35To 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.
I've tried "reading at work" and failed. I was trying to read scientific papers that are only tangentially related to work, and couldn't manage to do it. I attribute that to the fact that scientific papers, like coding, requires a lot of time of "building your mental environtment" so you can't be switching all the time.
Re: If You Quit Social Media, Will You Read More Books?
#36Clearly no, because both activities couldn't be more different. I dont sit down in the evening and spend 2 hour scrolling through social media. Why should I? I might scroll through my feed while waiting for my dentist appointment, because it is a nice way to pass the time. But reading a book takes time and attention. I do that after work, at home, with enough time at hand. Who asks such twisted questions anyway?
How you consume social media is not what everyone does.
For example my SO spends hours on end on Facebook. Depending on whether you consider it social media I sometimes sink a lot of time (think hours) on YouTube. And that's time we're not spending on reading.
In light of this the question doesn't seem as twisted.
Re: If You Quit Social Media, Will You Read More Books?
#37No, I would read less books. I actively participate in an online book club on one of popular messengers. It's very unlikely I would find the same great book club and similar people offline.
The blind hate towards social media is absolutely ridiculous.
Re: If You Quit Social Media, Will You Read More Books?
#38This 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…
That works for me with nonfiction books that I'm actively or casually studying. Not for novels though, and if I'm reading a few nonfiction books then start a (good) novel, all the nonfiction takes a backseat until I'm finished.
So I tend to cycle - a good novel, or two, followed by some time with everything fictional removed from my ereader.
This also depends on my personal and work life - fiction is usually much less effort than nonfiction, so when work or personal life gets busy, I find some good novels to enjoy, then when things calm down I'll go back to cycling between several nonfiction books.
Things don't always sync up perfectly of course - the trick is to avoid huge multi-book series, otherwise I'll end up reading them far into the time when I'd be better served by learning something new.
Re: If You Quit Social Media, Will You Read More Books?
#39To 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 "…
My progression was something like:
Video Games > Social Media > YouTube > TV > Reading
I had to cut quite a few things out of my life before I defaulted to books, because all of the prior activities tapped into my brains inherent desire for stimulating, low effort consumption. Reading is quite often hard, boring, or difficult, but generally more rewarding in the end. I retain more useful information, explicitly because it is more difficult and my brain denotes it a higher reward value.
Re: If You Quit Social Media, Will You Read More Books?
#40I 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…
> 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
You /s, but when I quit the internet completely, I did become a voracious reader of books. I also spent hours practicing piano. And I went to bed on time.
Like you I also have diagnosed and untreated ADHD. But at this point it feels like it's a misdiagnosis and I'm simply incompatible with the internet.