4 ms·

I got into work mode the past couple years of my life and spent most time either working or speaking with people, then browsing my phone in the downtimes / befo

I got into work mode the past couple years of my life and spent most time either working or speaking with people, then browsing my phone in the downtimes / before bed / first thing in the morning. I hadn't read a book in a couple of years and it was scary the first time I tried again. Literally could not read more than 1 - 1.5 pages without my mind wandering or feeling the pang to check the feed on my phone. Kind of horrifying to be honest. Took me a couple weeks to get back in the groove and actually have some decent comprehension / retention. Personally, reading again was a great way to rebuild my attention span and just rewiring my brain in general. I had no idea how bad I had become.

exolymph 10y ago
> Personally, reading again was a great way to rebuild my attention span and just rewiring my brain in general. I had no idea how bad I had become. I've gone through this same process. It was definitely frightening to realize how far I'd fallen from my grade-school bookworm days. I have to consciously fight against bad information-intake habits now. I actually wrote an ebook about it: https://www.amazon.com/How-Start-Reading-Again-Internet-ebook/dp/B00VWFAZUW https://www.amazon.com/How-Start-Reading-Again-Internet-eboo...
- studentrob 10y ago
  So, to start reading again I have to read a book that tells me how to read. Hmm
  - Houshalter 10y ago
    You have to start somewhere.
  - exolymph 10y ago
    You don't have to, but it's an option.
    - studentrob 10y ago
      I was joking. Honestly would be funny if this were a podcast tho
throwaway13337 10y ago
Even movies are too slow now for me and some others I'm around. Rarely am I engaged the whole time. It doesn't matter the genre. They take too long - just like books - to get a point across. It's definitely a symptom of the proliferation of smartphones. I'm not sure it's an entirely bad thing - just a shift in the way we consume media. Short burst rather than long-form. Long stretches of passive consumption could be argued as harmful just as not being able to concentrate on one long-form piece.
- IkmoIkmo 10y ago
  Not just smartphones, but the internet in general in my experience. I'm not much of a smartphone user, I have the latest phone but I'm not a power-user at all. But I have the same issues talked about. For me it's related to how I consume information, it's very non-linear. Wikipedia is probably the best example, you read a page, then come across affiliated topics and click those, you go down the information tree on that topic, then come back up to finish the original one. Such that reading about the history of say a particular city, you'll end up reading about other cities, about pagan religions, about warlords and their particular tactics, about irrigation systems, political theory etc etc. It's extremely non-linear. And when I research a topic, I find I consume information similarly. When I think about say the environment, I tend to have many tiny questions popping up, and get them answered. This is akin to having a private teacher who has answers to all of a kids' questions, versus a school teacher who has got 60 minutes to cover standardised material in a linear fashion. Books are extremely linear versus say wikipedia. You flip pages one by one, there's no skipping or switching subjects built in to the design, like say wikipedia or the internet more generally as a source of information. And my brain just can't handle having questions pop up, and wondering about things, and just having to ignore my curiosity to get the book finished. It takes away from the enjoyment for me. Even when I read fiction, and there's a character walking in Paris and looking at the 'famed xyz', with a brief description, I want to look at it! On the internet I'd immediately google it, in a book I just have to accept that I've got no clue what it looks and shut down my curiosity. At least if it exists in the real world, I have no issue with letting my imagination run wild in fiction.
  - 10y ago
unexistance 10y ago
I can attest to this, trying to read a VERY GOOD book after so long, I can only read at most 2 pages & left wondering (or worst, sleepy) Quickly regained the normal attention span after a few days of force reading (manage to 'lose' myself in the book, finally) Now I'm looking for the next good books, surprisingly hard to get, at least in this part of the world
cel1ne 10y ago
For me it helps when I ask myself, two hours after browsing HN for example: What did I read today there that sticked?
- xerophyte12932 10y ago
  stuck* That is a great metric btw. I usually do this at the end of the day on the ride back home from work when my dad and I discuss things we read that day
paulojreis 10y ago
"The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains" by Nicholas Carr might be of interest to you. And, well, to almost everyone here - your symptoms probably already appeared in one way or another to anyone who's reading this. Personally, while I consider myself pretty disciplined, I feel deeply frustrated (almost angry at myself) whenever I'm actually trying to focus on something and feel the need to also do/see/check/read something else. Not exactly a facebook feed, but I've come to Hacker News while reading. I don't know what's the most commonly accepted definition of addiction, but this certainly feels like it. http://www.amazon.com/Shallows-What-Internet-Doing-Brains/dp/0393339750 http://www.amazon.com/Shallows-What-Internet-Doing-Brains/dp...

exolymph 10y ago

> Personally, reading again was a great way to rebuild my attention span and just rewiring my brain in general. I had no idea how bad I had become. I've gone through this same process. It was definitely frightening to realize how far I'd fallen from my grade-school bookworm days. I have to consciously fight against bad information-intake habits now. I actually wrote an ebook about it: https://www.amazon.com/How-Start-Reading-Again-Internet-ebook/dp/B00VWFAZUW https://www.amazon.com/How-Start-Reading-Again-Internet-eboo...

studentrob 10y ago
So, to start reading again I have to read a book that tells me how to read. Hmm
- Houshalter 10y ago
  You have to start somewhere.
- exolymph 10y ago
  You don't have to, but it's an option.
  - studentrob 10y ago
    I was joking. Honestly would be funny if this were a podcast tho

throwaway13337 10y ago

Even movies are too slow now for me and some others I'm around. Rarely am I engaged the whole time. It doesn't matter the genre. They take too long - just like books - to get a point across. It's definitely a symptom of the proliferation of smartphones. I'm not sure it's an entirely bad thing - just a shift in the way we consume media. Short burst rather than long-form. Long stretches of passive consumption could be argued as harmful just as not being able to concentrate on one long-form piece.

IkmoIkmo 10y ago
Not just smartphones, but the internet in general in my experience. I'm not much of a smartphone user, I have the latest phone but I'm not a power-user at all. But I have the same issues talked about. For me it's related to how I consume information, it's very non-linear. Wikipedia is probably the best example, you read a page, then come across affiliated topics and click those, you go down the information tree on that topic, then come back up to finish the original one. Such that reading about the history of say a particular city, you'll end up reading about other cities, about pagan religions, about warlords and their particular tactics, about irrigation systems, political theory etc etc. It's extremely non-linear. And when I research a topic, I find I consume information similarly. When I think about say the environment, I tend to have many tiny questions popping up, and get them answered. This is akin to having a private teacher who has answers to all of a kids' questions, versus a school teacher who has got 60 minutes to cover standardised material in a linear fashion. Books are extremely linear versus say wikipedia. You flip pages one by one, there's no skipping or switching subjects built in to the design, like say wikipedia or the internet more generally as a source of information. And my brain just can't handle having questions pop up, and wondering about things, and just having to ignore my curiosity to get the book finished. It takes away from the enjoyment for me. Even when I read fiction, and there's a character walking in Paris and looking at the 'famed xyz', with a brief description, I want to look at it! On the internet I'd immediately google it, in a book I just have to accept that I've got no clue what it looks and shut down my curiosity. At least if it exists in the real world, I have no issue with letting my imagination run wild in fiction.
- 10y ago

unexistance 10y ago

I can attest to this, trying to read a VERY GOOD book after so long, I can only read at most 2 pages & left wondering (or worst, sleepy) Quickly regained the normal attention span after a few days of force reading (manage to 'lose' myself in the book, finally) Now I'm looking for the next good books, surprisingly hard to get, at least in this part of the world

cel1ne 10y ago

For me it helps when I ask myself, two hours after browsing HN for example: What did I read today there that sticked?

xerophyte12932 10y ago
stuck* That is a great metric btw. I usually do this at the end of the day on the ride back home from work when my dad and I discuss things we read that day

paulojreis 10y ago

"The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains" by Nicholas Carr might be of interest to you. And, well, to almost everyone here - your symptoms probably already appeared in one way or another to anyone who's reading this. Personally, while I consider myself pretty disciplined, I feel deeply frustrated (almost angry at myself) whenever I'm actually trying to focus on something and feel the need to also do/see/check/read something else. Not exactly a facebook feed, but I've come to Hacker News while reading. I don't know what's the most commonly accepted definition of addiction, but this certainly feels like it. http://www.amazon.com/Shallows-What-Internet-Doing-Brains/dp/0393339750 http://www.amazon.com/Shallows-What-Internet-Doing-Brains/dp...