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 can’t afford a book, we can check it out from the public library. With social media, we are both consumer and product. It’s 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 doesn’t 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.
As terrible as this is, I am relieved to know it’s not just me. I listened to the same Ezra Klein podcast you referenced. The guest mentioned revisiting Hesse’s The Glass Bead Game, which I had also recently tried to reread, and had had the same experience: it seemed slow and plodding, which was not how I remember the experience when I lapped it up in my 20s. Sadly, it is not the text that has aged poorly but my ability to enjoy. Like you, I hope to recover my ability to deep read. Thanks for the tips on how one might approach that effort!
It's interesting, Andy, but I'm hearing the same from so many others: relief that it's not just them. I definitely think it's a collective experience between the pandemic, devices, etc., so we have to be very intentional and strategic to change our patterns. I, too, was fascinated by her experience of The Glass Bead Game—to the point that I don't want to test myself by re-reading it. I've noticed my impatience with old movies, so old books are going to be worse. Best of luck with your reading recovery ...
I never thought how the digital Era has impacted me this way. I used to love reading. I have books on my bedside stand from.2 years ago, still waiting to be read.
I have all your books, and Ive read parts of all of them. Hope you don’t mind that I haven’t read them straight through from cover to cover. But they’re wonderful for dipping in for a moment of inspiration.
Thanks so much for reading, Wyatt! And I like your dipping approach. That's what I always do with collections of short stories, and flash fiction especially lends itself to that.
I have recently had trouble focusing on a book because of my phone. Before November, I had never had a social media account of any sort. I'm now on Linkedin and spend an absurd amount of time on Substack, neglecting my newsletter while reading and commenting on others’. I need to make a change. My phone use has gone from 45 minutes daily to 4-5. It’s bad.
It's interesting to me how social media sites and the phone itself were designed around addiction. In that sense, many tech companies are the equivalent of tobacco companies—their business model is built around consciously harming others. I hope there are class-action suits someday. Or that the designers design with more positive goals.
Agreeing and it helps to spend time with readers! I imagine some of my brain working too hard and some of it asleep all at the same time and will it wake up if it isn’t exercised? I read while on the treadmill today and looking forward to more of that and hoping it spills into more time for reading from books. Thank you for raising awareness Grant and for sounding the alarm!
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 “users” 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 can’t afford a book, we can check it out from the public library. With social media, we are both consumer and product. It’s 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 doesn’t 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.
As terrible as this is, I am relieved to know it’s not just me. I listened to the same Ezra Klein podcast you referenced. The guest mentioned revisiting Hesse’s The Glass Bead Game, which I had also recently tried to reread, and had had the same experience: it seemed slow and plodding, which was not how I remember the experience when I lapped it up in my 20s. Sadly, it is not the text that has aged poorly but my ability to enjoy. Like you, I hope to recover my ability to deep read. Thanks for the tips on how one might approach that effort!
It's interesting, Andy, but I'm hearing the same from so many others: relief that it's not just them. I definitely think it's a collective experience between the pandemic, devices, etc., so we have to be very intentional and strategic to change our patterns. I, too, was fascinated by her experience of The Glass Bead Game—to the point that I don't want to test myself by re-reading it. I've noticed my impatience with old movies, so old books are going to be worse. Best of luck with your reading recovery ...
I never thought how the digital Era has impacted me this way. I used to love reading. I have books on my bedside stand from.2 years ago, still waiting to be read.
I hope this is your year of reading!
I have all your books, and Ive read parts of all of them. Hope you don’t mind that I haven’t read them straight through from cover to cover. But they’re wonderful for dipping in for a moment of inspiration.
Thanks so much for reading, Wyatt! And I like your dipping approach. That's what I always do with collections of short stories, and flash fiction especially lends itself to that.
I have recently had trouble focusing on a book because of my phone. Before November, I had never had a social media account of any sort. I'm now on Linkedin and spend an absurd amount of time on Substack, neglecting my newsletter while reading and commenting on others’. I need to make a change. My phone use has gone from 45 minutes daily to 4-5. It’s bad.
It's interesting to me how social media sites and the phone itself were designed around addiction. In that sense, many tech companies are the equivalent of tobacco companies—their business model is built around consciously harming others. I hope there are class-action suits someday. Or that the designers design with more positive goals.
We would need to find a way for tech companies to make money with “users” using those platforms less, an unlikely scenario.
Agreeing and it helps to spend time with readers! I imagine some of my brain working too hard and some of it asleep all at the same time and will it wake up if it isn’t exercised? I read while on the treadmill today and looking forward to more of that and hoping it spills into more time for reading from books. Thank you for raising awareness Grant and for sounding the alarm!
Let the reading spill forth!
Hard relate.