4 ms·

Same experience for me. Viewing screens, with their unnatural light and uncanny hyperrealism, rattle my nervous system, and I can feel a subtle internal fight i

Same experience for me. Viewing screens, with their unnatural light and uncanny hyperrealism, rattle my nervous system, and I can feel a subtle internal fight in my brain about what I’m doing. Somehow it’s also easy to get trapped, like you get magnetized. I see this in everyone. It can sometimes cause arguments trying to get someone to break the spell and have them reengage with the world. It’s not just the normal aggravation of context switching, our nervous systems get slightly hijacked. Starting to read a physical book sometimes is very difficult after spending time on screens, but if I can break thru the first 15 minutes where I can’t get my eyes to track the page effectively and let myself slow down enough to fully pay attention to the words in front of me, with no possibility to click anything, then I find that my mood changes and I feel happy, calm, creative, inspired. After an hour I only reluctantly give up reading the book. Rinse and repeat everyday. Some days I wish all computers would stop working.

odysseus 4y ago
Agree with your second paragraph, but for some books, I've gotten too used to being able to look up words/topics directly from the ebook. I find myself annoyed I can't long press a word with a physical book. I then end up grabbing my phone and looking up the word/topic, and then it's back to the electronic device that I was trying to get away from with the paper book.
- BanzaiCharge 4y ago
  Something that's helped me with this is having my phone nearby so I can use voice commands to get word definitions. No need to touch the device and get sucked in but all the ease of an ebook. Of course this only works in more private locations I suppose.
  - odysseus 4y ago
    Good idea, but I think it might work better if you had an Android device. Siri is not great at definitions and you often have to literally spell things out for her. (if she hears you at all and doesn't start randomly calling your aunt instead of providing a definition)
- DavideNL 4y ago
  Read on a Kindle (/KOreader) and put your phone far enough so it becomes annoying to go grab it :-) The solution with these addicting things is always to create some kind of barrier…
  - odysseus 4y ago
    I've tried this, but I find the screen refresh of e-ink displays very distracting. I also prefer scrolling text when reading vs. flipping virtual pages - which limits me to non e-ink displays. I just created a Reading Focus mode on my iPhone that automatically limits the number of apps available / notifications visible when I'm reading. We'll see how this works.
int_19h 4y ago
I've been "magnetized" by paper books many times as a kid. I also don't observe any difference between the degree of engagement between paper and ebooks. I do, however, read mostly from devices that I very specifically configure to be optimized for reading - and that includes blocking all notifications.

odysseus 4y ago

Agree with your second paragraph, but for some books, I've gotten too used to being able to look up words/topics directly from the ebook. I find myself annoyed I can't long press a word with a physical book. I then end up grabbing my phone and looking up the word/topic, and then it's back to the electronic device that I was trying to get away from with the paper book.

BanzaiCharge 4y ago
Something that's helped me with this is having my phone nearby so I can use voice commands to get word definitions. No need to touch the device and get sucked in but all the ease of an ebook. Of course this only works in more private locations I suppose.
- odysseus 4y ago
  Good idea, but I think it might work better if you had an Android device. Siri is not great at definitions and you often have to literally spell things out for her. (if she hears you at all and doesn't start randomly calling your aunt instead of providing a definition)
DavideNL 4y ago
Read on a Kindle (/KOreader) and put your phone far enough so it becomes annoying to go grab it :-) The solution with these addicting things is always to create some kind of barrier…
- odysseus 4y ago
  I've tried this, but I find the screen refresh of e-ink displays very distracting. I also prefer scrolling text when reading vs. flipping virtual pages - which limits me to non e-ink displays. I just created a Reading Focus mode on my iPhone that automatically limits the number of apps available / notifications visible when I'm reading. We'll see how this works.

int_19h 4y ago

I've been "magnetized" by paper books many times as a kid. I also don't observe any difference between the degree of engagement between paper and ebooks. I do, however, read mostly from devices that I very specifically configure to be optimized for reading - and that includes blocking all notifications.