Definitely a valid objection. Social media is much easier to consume in small bites. It’s pretty much designed with that in mind. Still, you can learn to read that way, and while it may not be as valuable as reading in long sessions, you can get a lot out of it. Stephen King in “On Writing” suggests that carrying a book everywhere is one of the crucial tasks if you want to be a voracious reader into adulthood, because it becomes harder to set aside blocks of free time. I’ve personally gotten back up to reading a couple dozen books per year by getting rid of social media (and most of my news sites) and instead reading my Kindle app in drips and drabs. One useful trick if you try to do this is to keep a wide variety of books on hand—some short, some long, some fiction, some nonfiction, etc. It makes it easier to find books that keep you interested and give you energy.

But to be fair, most social media is trash. I've read the twitter accounts of people I respect, and most of them aren't especially insightful. It's a places for poorly thought out hot takes, and it is like that because it is designed that way. It's sound bytes of text.

If those same people had sat down and condensed those thoughts into structured narratives, they'd probably put together something more informative. Even the most garbage books have the benefit of some kind of guided design, Tweets are just thousands of random takes from strangers.

The author probably could have argued their point better, but the point is that if you spend 600 hours on social media on average per year, you could take away 2/3 of the time and read 200 books (or something else). Your argument that reading for the sake of reading is valid, but I would argue that most social media is trash (in varying degrees -- do you need to know what your friend or some celebrity was thinking at the time on Twitter, or see the 50th friend wish everyone a great 2018 on Facebook?) and the books that a conscious reader would choose would be less like trash. Also, it isn't that you should read for the sake of reading, it's that you could spend your time doing something probably more mentally healthy or a better use of your time than social media by reading.

I am not in disagreement of any your points. But, it’s worth mentioning that, while I don’t know the reason why this is, books will no longer make you fall asleep if you practice reading them regularly. Tiredness will still have the expected effect, but the reading paper pages will not.

Again, I don’t know why it is, but I’ve observed the problem in lives of friends and family for many years. It has yet to fail.

I made a significant move to prioritize reading books, even sacrificing most of my social life for it. Ever since, I experience reading books keeps me awake rather than encouraging sleep.

If you’re having trouble falling asleep, I found another technique to work well: stream of consciousness journaling.

You just take a notebook and writing down every thought that flows through your mind as fast as you can keep up. In about 5 minutes, I’ve found that I reach a calm peaceful state of mind and can get to sleep again.

I could probably use this advice and I haven't heard it before. I'm curious and will give it a try. Thanks.