Why Can't We Read Anymore?

[W.T.Faulkner]

I can't buy iBooks for this reason. If I'm on my iPad trying to read a book, I'll minimize the book and refresh GBCN 300 times.

[Deleted]

This part is really interesting to me. 


It turns out that digital devices and software are finely tuned to train us to pay attention to them, no matter what else we should be doing. The mechanism, borne out by recent neuroscience studies, is something like this:



New information creates a rush of dopamine to the brain, a neurotransmitter that makes you feel good.

The promise of new information compels your brain to seek out that dopamine rush.

With fMRIs, you can see the brain’s pleasure centres light up with activity when new emails arrive.



So, every new email you get gives you a little flood of dopamine. Every little flood of dopamine reinforces your brain’s memory that checking email gives a flood of dopamine. And our brains are programmed to seek out things that will give us little floods of dopamine. Further, these patterns of behaviour start creating neural pathways, so that they become unconscious habits: Work on something important, brain itch, check email, dopamine, refresh, dopamine, check Twitter, dopamine, back to work. Over and over, and each time the habit becomes more ingrained in the actual structures of our brains.

[wambam]

This is something I've noticed about my TV watching and reading lately. With TV, I've been also on my phone the majority of the time and I feel like I'm not as into shows anymore. With reading, I haven't read hardly anything this year until July 4th weekend.

[pantsparty]

My reading has definitely dropped since being on this board

I used to be like, "What a weirdo," when posters talked about taking a break but now I kind of understand. 

[eddy]

This is why I got a kindle paperweight instead of a device with internet. Once I go to bed my only choice is to read as I don't bring my phone to bed.

But I also get irritated eith myself and my internet dependance. Ignoring my kids, ignoring my spouse, ignoring work. I try to break habits but haven't had lasting results.

[juliachild]

I don't think my reading has dropped any. I read every night in bed. But I have been going to sleep later because I check my phone for awhile and then read.

I am bad about being on my phone while watching tv.

[pixy0stix]

LONG LIVE DOPAMINE!

I forgot what else I was going to say.

[Deleted]

The "Pleasing Ourselves to Death" line seems pretty apt and a little scary.

My friend's 6yo daughter was playing with some dolls the other day, had a whole box full of clothes and accessories and a tea set all set up to play with... and she said "I don't know what to do now." Like she didn't know how to PLAY.

That kind of floored me. I remember playing for hours by myself when I was her age, pretending I was in one of the Little House on the Prairie books, or traveling the Oregon Trail with dolls and plastic food, pretending my closet was a forest and my bed was a mountain range.

Crazy.

[nahoku]

Yes! This was why I said I felt shame in the how many books have you read this year thread. I've read 2 and maybe the shame part was more about how addicted I am to my phone than how many books I've read. If I would just put my damn phone down, I would have read a lot more. I've got a ton of books that I haven't read on my nook account and regularly find ebooks at my library that I want to check out. I have a mini iPad and was going to use that as my ereader but I think I need to just get a basic nook so I can turn my phone off and just concentrate on reading.

[Deleted]

Jul 8, 2015 10:48:30 GMT -5 TR said:

Jul 8, 2015 10:47:04 GMT -5 toledo said:

And this goes a long way toward explaining why a lot of people find it so difficult to put their phones away when they drive.  Especially if you hear your phone ding with a text or FB message or email.  "Someone wants to talk to me!" just feels good.

and @fucksticklegit

The book The Willpower Instinct talks a lot about dopamine and it's role in things like this, it was a really interesting read if you enjoyed this article.

I fucking LOVE biological psychology. I'll have to check this out. 

[frkls]

we were in the boonies of TN with my inlaws last week and had no cell service unless we drove to town. no texts, no email, no internet, no facebook, no no wifi.

i read THREE novels.

[sequins]

I read that meditation helps calm your head and trains you to focus on one thing at a time. I'm yet to try it out though.

I'm upset with myself that I'm letting my library books expire without even reading the first page . Ten years ago, I would come home from the library, so excited and finish at least one book by the next day

[Deleted]

I think I am about to take FB and the tapatalk app off my phone soon. I need to decompress.


I don't want to take IG off because I love love love looking at pics of my kids on it.

[05heel]

Jul 8, 2015 10:47:59 GMT -5 eddy said:

This is why I got a kindle paperweight instead of a device with internet. Once I go to bed my only choice is to read as I don't bring my phone to bed.

But I also get irritated eith myself and my internet dependance. Ignoring my kids, ignoring my spouse, ignoring work. I try to break habits but haven't had lasting results.

Yep.  The Kindle Paperwhite is why I've read almost 30 books in 2015 and read 18 in all of 2014. 

And w/r/t dopamine, this is why I'm not surprised in the least that there are so many diagnosed (or undiagnosed) ADHD women on this board.  Myself included. 

[frkls]

also, i used the excuse of being so isolated for the past ten years to go overboard with all the internet-socializing. now i'm in a place with real people, and i'm not any better.

[pixy0stix]

Real answer - I read books on my phone. I have a kindle and used to have a nook, yet I still find it easier to read on my phone. I don't have issues doing so, either. I tend to tune out to everything but my book when reading. I average ~30 books a year.

[rex]

i do not have this problem with books, but i do find that if i am reading articles i have a natural tendency to skim and have to make sure i have no other distractions when i am reading online so i do not skim.

i am so guilty of multitasking as well. right now i am on gbcn, watching john stewart, and have about 5 tabs open (which is honestly much fewer than i usually have open). i sometimes hide my phone in a drawer so it's difficult to use. i kind of feel shame thinking about how addicted i am to it

[Deleted]

Not gonna lie, even this article felt really long to me. I didn't even finish it. Eep.

[ginger]

I have an addictive personality, so once I start a book, I can't put it down. Dings and phone alerts become annoying to me.

However, I'm so guilty of being distracted by my phone or computer when with my daughter. Because that interaction is often more fun than answering the same question 50 times. I've got to get better at that.

Then of course there is work. When it is slow, I live for refreshing and new notifications. I finally turned off the ability to see new notifications when locked, and that has helped a lot. If I have a big project or deadline I don't have a problem putting it away for the day or whatever, but when I have little piddly things to get done, I find I stop a LOT to see if there's something new, more entertaining, than what I'm currently doing.

[fuckyourcouch]

Jul 8, 2015 10:43:42 GMT -5 cjoy said:

I skimmed this.

As I skimmed, I actively bitched at myself for doing it. Then kept doing it, got to the end, and was all, "oh well."

i hate myself. Lol
i really do judge my own screen addiction. My h is worse. I want to implement restrictions in our house!

[05heel]

The WORST is online articles with links to related content right inline with the text. I don't even bother reading those anymore. After 45 minutes I'm reading some random end-of-the-internet shit, and I've managed to finish one paragraph of the original article.

[FastHands]

YES I was going to say the same about watching TV. For me, watching TV with someone is kind of a connection, and when DH had a smartphone and I was still a hold-out, it bothered me SO MUCH that he'd be on his phone while we were watching TV. And now I do it too. Even during movies. And while I think a lot of TV is crap, I differ from this article's author in that I do find myself really moved by movies in a way that is not fundamentally dissimilar from books. And I think my ability to fully enjoy a movie is hurt even MORE by my digital-ness, because, while I might read fewer books due to a perceived lack of time, I only HALF watch movies. Sure, a lot of movies are just fluff crap and don't necessarily require or deserve undivided attention, but well-made movies? Where someone truly put thought into that camera angle and the color of the sky and the expression on an actor's face? That is worth my attention!

I will say that I moved my phone charger to the living room when DS was born, because I wanted to have it out there when I was nursing him in the middle of the night without waking DH, and I have just left it there. I fall asleep SO much faster now that I'm not on my phone right before I go to bed. And I like stepping away from it in a weird power-driven sort of way, like "I can quit any time." heh

[FastHands]

Jul 8, 2015 11:04:23 GMT -5 05heel said:

The WORST is online articles with links to related content right inline with the text. I don't even bother reading those anymore. After 45 minutes I'm reading some random end-of-the-internet shit, and I've managed to finish one paragraph of the original article.

Yes! This guy even did it, too! I felt like it was a test.
"What's that, you have a site with free audiobooks??"
::hovers mouse over link::
::looks around::
::flits eyes down the page to check for words like "see, you just clicked that link to the audiobook site, didn't you??::
::clicks "opens in new tab"::

I forced myself to finish the article first, but if not for the subject matter, I 100% would have been browsing audiobooks and would never have finished the actual article.

[jane6672]

Digital distractions aren't an issue for me when I'm reading a book.

Just in every single other area of my life.

[lovelyshoes]

I've noticed that it's so hard to concentrate when I am reading. I look for any excuse to switch tasks. It really freaks me out, because I used to be so good at concentrating and getting things done. No wonder the kids are all hyper. I am going to put away my phone when I am at home. I hardly even use it for phone conversations anymore, only for email and the Internet. Sad.

[thatgirl2478]

Jul 8, 2015 10:40:37 GMT -5 W.T.Faulkner said:

I can't buy iBooks for this reason. If I'm on my iPad trying to read a book, I'll minimize the book and refresh GBCN 300 times.

That's one of the best things about the kindle paperwhite - I have internet access, but the browser is awful & slow and hard to navigate. So it's really just for books! lol

[cuccaro]

I really want to make some of those changes. Going to the movies is so hard these days because I get really bored not being able to look at my phone or ipad. I also don't want my baby seeing us looking at a screen all the time!

[Deleted]

At the beginning of the year my phone broke and I had to use a cheap burner until my contract was up for renewal and it was such a surreal experience. Being unplugged felt so good that I was committed to staying unplugged. That didn't work but two weeks ago I made the decision to delete all social media apps off of my phone in an effort to limit how much of my day is taken up by mindlessly checking them. I still find myself reaching for my phone at those "down times" but it is getting easier.

[isabel]

Jul 8, 2015 10:42:08 GMT -5 TR said:

I do not have this problem when I read. However, if I'm sitting at home watching TV, I am also on my phone checking FB, IG, GBCN, my email, and now Twitter. It was hard when I first started watching Game of Thrones because I would realize I hadn't been paying attention and had to rewind and watch the last 5 minutes over again.

But when I read, I forget everything else and don't even hear things going on around me.

I try to make it a habit to get in bed 30 - 45 minutes before I want to be asleep and I read for that time. I think it helps my brain shut down. The only problem is I realized I have to just re-read old books during that time or I won't stop and I'll stay up too late

I'm the exact same way. I wanted to watch a tv show the other night and I had to make myself put my computer away so that I would actually pay attention to it. I don't have this problem when I read.

DH and I have decided we need to have one tech free weekend day once DS is old enough to interact a little more. We both recognize how dependent we are on our phones and we don't like it.

[housewife]

I suck - I couldn't finish the article.

I have recently been making an effort to read more books. I have to turn off the tv and silence my phone in order to concentrate though. I don't think I'll have have the restraint to do ebooks.