[eointierney]

Read books

I'm not joking, it's the best antidote to the thought-theft of "social media". Pick a subject in which you're interested, find a representively excellent text, and read. And then re-read, because unless you're a genius you won't absorb everything first time.

Also it's wonderful to just curl up with a book and a cup of tea and let time pass you by as you ... learn the considered thought of others! This is civilised!

Normally I'd recommend history but around these parts Category Theory in Context by Emily Riehl is probably acceptable :)

About re-reading, especially textbooks: it takes time and trouble to appreciate the difficult and often esoteric ideas represented in a text and understand the underlying deep thought. The author(s) wrote and re-wrote every damn phrase in terms of their imagined audience. The first pass yields a basic familiarity, but try every chapter again in light of the later insights.

I remember the first time I read Introduction to Metamathematics by Kleene, and I remember the fourth time so much better. I can feel the cloth binding, I can hear his voice clearly.

[sh4rks]

I would love to do this, but years of mindlessly browsing social media has seriously shortened my attention span. I used to read books all the time. I remember staying up late as a kid just to read the new Harry Potter book.

Nowadays I pick up a book, read a few pages, then immediately lose interest and go do something else. Anybody know how to get back into reading?

[magneticnorth]

I've had some luck by going back to "simpler" books for a while - page-turner scifi, bestsellers, YA literature. For a while I only read things that really grabbed my attention, and I think that is gradually re-training my brain.

I'm not back to being as avid of a reader yet, but I'm optimistic I'll get there. I'm reading more now than I have in a few years.

[gigaflop]

I've started working on this, too.

I first kicked myself into it by starting the Discworld series of books. Pratchett is a great author (imo), the text has a certain kind of easy charm, I don't need to go in sequential order, the books are cheap to buy, and none are terribly long or dense.

I've also added some longer, more serious stuff to my reading list and bookshelf, but those are things I'll get to in time. I try to make myself read 100 pages per week, and if I don't like doing that with a certain book, I'll pick up another one. I can manage that at a leisurely pace in 2 to 3 hours on a weekend, or grab 20 pages a few times per week.

[b112]

Read about the sentient beercan, it's an amusing page turner.

[magneticnorth]

This was a bit harder to google than I anticipated - lots of fan references on the internet, it looks like.

"Expeditionary Force" by Craig Alanson if anyone else is curious. I'll check it out, thanks!

[bcbrown]

Try reading the same sort of books you'd stay up late as a kid to read.

[vmurthy]

I can empathise with you. Warning : some armchair psychology ahead : I think it's the age old "less dopamine kick" syndrome. Your brain is used to getting a steady stream of dopamine when you watch/react/post on social media. A book simply doesn't give it (yet). From personal experience, I experience "Aha!" moments when I read once in about 15 days. What I'd recommend is to re-read some of your old favourites and pick up adjacent ones (example : re-read Harry Potter - Prisoner of Azkaban (my favorite ;) and pick up some Greek mythology . ) Finding unexpected connections is one source of joy I experience. Good luck!

[polio]

To me, nothing on the popular subreddits or in TikTok has satisfied my desire for depth and nuance. There are smaller subreddits that I like, but there's no way to specify what you want on TikTok, so I no longer use it. By shaping your philosophy of pleasure explicitly around stuff that only longform content can satisfy, I've been able to easily discard parts of social media that don't align with my personal actualization. I think it does take some deliberate and repeated introspection to harden this impulse.

[cookingrobot]

Try bringing a book or kindle somewhere inconveniently far from your phone. A park, or bathtub or something.

[stevage]

I found it helpful to put myself in situations where the book is the best alternative. Leave your phone, get the book, walk to a park, sit down with a beer. Every time you get bored and restless, you'll put the book down, remember you have no phone and pick it up again.

[andyzweb]

For me it was moving in with my fiance. I read out loud to her every night till she falls asleep.

[egypturnash]

Go somewhere with shitty reception. Or just leave your phone behind.

[woliveirajr]

Force of will. Really try, commit, get involved in this goal.

It won't be easy because you'll be changing some habit. But with time you'll learn how to appreciate books again.

[froh]

By practice. The attention span grows back. And pick a book that you really want to read.

[eointierney]

Just f*cking read :)

[wizzwizz4]

As much as I want to say this advice is terrible and useless… yeah. Move the things that aren't books far away, and read a book. When it's boring, put it down, but don't let go of it. Wait a few minutes, then move it back in front of your face and keep reading.

It's possible you picked a bad book, but it's more likely that it isn't engaging enough. It normally takes me a few days (after half a year book-free) to get back into reading, but it's worth it.

[sixstringtheory]

I also like to have a book going in each of several genres, so I can usually find something to match my mood.

Right now I’ve got one going in science fiction, autobiography, technical and… oh, another autobiography (I’ve been really into those lately).

[executesorder66]

I'm sorry but I have to ask this every time I see it. I have yet to receive an answer.

What is the point of censoring 1 letter in an otherwise extremely obvious word?

You are not redacting the word. People reading the word don't bleep it out in their head. You know you are saying 'fucking', we know you are saying 'fucking'. HN doesn't block posts with "naughty" words in them.

So what are you trying to achieve? Please tell me.

[eointierney]

I suppose it's a nod of the head in the direction of "civilised discourse" without actually being so. It's lighthearted, not to be taken seriously, my apologies if it irritates you.

[nonrandomstring]

If you're looking for a book I wrote one specifically about this problem. Some of you may like it. It's short and has short chapters you can read in one "boredom chunk" of about 10 mins.

It's https://digitalvegan.net

One reason for making it an old fashioned paper book is that some of the ideas it presents would simply be censored on what the internet is becoming.

It's not really written as "self-help", more as philosophical musings for intellectual self-defence. Many people who have read it tell me they successfully quit their smartphone.

As ongoing research in modern critical technology studies I'm trying to keep a list of ones I read and at least found interesting (below). Good luck finding the courage to take back control of your technology.

Jenny Oddell How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy

Paul Kingsnorth Life versus the machine

Roger McNamee Zucked: Waking Up to the Facebook Catastrophe

Siva Vaidhyanathan Antisocial Media: How Facebook Disconnects Us

Virginia Eubanks Automating Inequality

Sophie Brickman Baby Unplugged

Mike Monteiro Ruined by Design

Thomas Kersting Disconnected: Protect Your Kids Against Device Dependency

Nicholas Kardaras Glow Kids

Jaron Lanier Ten Arguments For Deleting Your Social Media

Douglas Rushkoff Team Human

Carissa Véliz Privacy is Power: Why You Should Take Back Control

David Shenk Data Smog

Paulina Borsook Cyberselfish

[sixstringtheory]

Also, write. I find it easier to remember things if I’ve written them down, so when I mix writing in with reading, I feel like I better retain the things I read.

Start with a quote you liked when you were reading and just let your thoughts flow into the paper, you might go for many pages and an hour or more before coming up for air.

I like to call the activity of reading and writing “conversing with the universe.”

Conversely, I find that I can dump hours into social media and not remember anything when I finally snap out of it. It’s junk food for the mind.

[ZYinMD]

I'm a huge book reader and I usually read very gripping novels. For me, TikTok is much healthier, because 1. it's easy to put down when I need to do other things 2. it's easy to refrain from opening it. Books however are very hard to put down, and very hard to refrain from picking up again. For me, starting a book = no life for a week.

[MandieD]

Nicholas Carr's "The Shallows" is easier going than I thought it would be, and I'm doing even better than a chapter at a sitting, and sometimes have to make myself put it down. I think he wrote it for people with diminished attention spans - and that's a compliment.

[quinnjh]

Ooh yes anecdotally im with both of u on this. Found it very hard to quit but category theory by emily riehl was a great offramp to begin "thinking more seriously"