Man, can I ever relate to this! I started using social media as part of my business, but now it feels like social media is using me. I, too, used to be a voracious reader and can't seem to get that spark back. But I will keep trying, and will power through, as you suggest here. Books are magical and engage our brains like nothing else. We can't afford to lose that spark.
Man, can I ever relate to this! I started using social media as part of my business, but now it feels like social media is using me. I, too, used to be a voracious reader and can't seem to get that spark back. But I will keep trying, and will power through, as you suggest here. Books are magical and engage our brains like nothing else. We can't afford to lose that spark.
That's the key phrase: "social media is using me." Or the whole Internet is using us. I hope you find your way back to books. I'm just now putting my phone in another room and reading for an hour (like exercise, reading now needs its own environment and measurement).
Great idea. I've had my phone in another room when I sleep for a while now so I can get up, create, and then consume after. But hadn't thought of it for reading. Thanks.
Yes, you hit the nail on the head. With books, we are partaking in something. If we canтАЩt afford a book, we can check it out from the public library. With social media, we are both consumer and product. ItтАЩs beyond my understanding how data harvesting works. Who cares about my data, anyway? But the insidious part is how we are manipulated to engage in a certain obsessive and sometimes mindless way. I hope it doesnтАЩt ruin us as serious readers. Maybe one analogy ( not a perfect one) is if someone consumes a lot of porn, it may diminish their ability to engage deeply and thoughtfully with a lover in real life.
Haha, I think your porn analogy is right. Short-term consumption in place of long-term love (which, like reading, requires an attention to nuance, change ... it is a conversation, an ongoing reflection, etc.). I think the reading researcher's point goes beyond social media, though, and is about reading online in general, which is what is even scarier. The scrolling, looking for short-term dopamine hits, etc., has become embedded in our brains and is shaping us to be non-readers.
I agree--it's really ruining later generations of readers. I read a book once in the 1980s, by a teacher who studied how her students learned to think critically. Even then, she saw patterns of reduced abilities because TV watching generated a seven-second attention span. So kids couldn't string together a series of thoughts to create complex conclusions. Imagine how much worse it is now with our 3-second attention spans.
It's funny because I grew up in the era when the TV was called the "boob tube" and essentially viewed in a similar vein as the Internet. That era now seems quaint by comparison, but I don't doubt that our attention spans and our ability to read deeply dates back to the TV.
Man, can I ever relate to this! I started using social media as part of my business, but now it feels like social media is using me. I, too, used to be a voracious reader and can't seem to get that spark back. But I will keep trying, and will power through, as you suggest here. Books are magical and engage our brains like nothing else. We can't afford to lose that spark.
That's the key phrase: "social media is using me." Or the whole Internet is using us. I hope you find your way back to books. I'm just now putting my phone in another room and reading for an hour (like exercise, reading now needs its own environment and measurement).
Great idea. I've had my phone in another room when I sleep for a while now so I can get up, create, and then consume after. But hadn't thought of it for reading. Thanks.
Besides websites and apps, the only other place where customers are called тАЬusersтАЭ is the drug market. I'll let you make your assumptions.
Haha, good point, Corey! It's such a de-humanizing word.
Yes, you hit the nail on the head. With books, we are partaking in something. If we canтАЩt afford a book, we can check it out from the public library. With social media, we are both consumer and product. ItтАЩs beyond my understanding how data harvesting works. Who cares about my data, anyway? But the insidious part is how we are manipulated to engage in a certain obsessive and sometimes mindless way. I hope it doesnтАЩt ruin us as serious readers. Maybe one analogy ( not a perfect one) is if someone consumes a lot of porn, it may diminish their ability to engage deeply and thoughtfully with a lover in real life.
Haha, I think your porn analogy is right. Short-term consumption in place of long-term love (which, like reading, requires an attention to nuance, change ... it is a conversation, an ongoing reflection, etc.). I think the reading researcher's point goes beyond social media, though, and is about reading online in general, which is what is even scarier. The scrolling, looking for short-term dopamine hits, etc., has become embedded in our brains and is shaping us to be non-readers.
I agree--it's really ruining later generations of readers. I read a book once in the 1980s, by a teacher who studied how her students learned to think critically. Even then, she saw patterns of reduced abilities because TV watching generated a seven-second attention span. So kids couldn't string together a series of thoughts to create complex conclusions. Imagine how much worse it is now with our 3-second attention spans.
It's funny because I grew up in the era when the TV was called the "boob tube" and essentially viewed in a similar vein as the Internet. That era now seems quaint by comparison, but I don't doubt that our attention spans and our ability to read deeply dates back to the TV.