I think you overestimate most people’s tolerance for children who are always reading. My interest was not exactly reinforced by adult praise and encouragement all the time. I’m confident there are plenty of people who got copious negative reinforcement for reading.

> [Writing] will create forgetfulness in the learners’ souls, because they will not use their memories; they will trust to the external written characters and not remember of themselves. The specific which you have discovered is an aid not to memory, but to reminiscence, and you give your disciples not truth, but only the semblance of truth; they will be hearers of many things and will have learned nothing; they will appear to be omniscient and will generally know nothing; they will be tiresome company, having the show of wisdom without the reality.

> Socrates

http://apt46.net/2011/05/18/socrates-was-against-writing/

Well, ya know, Socrates was great and all, but this particular theory isn't exactly supported by the millennia that came after him.

I've never found myself unable to stop reading a book even when I knew I should be doing something else. Like now. I should be getting some sleep but instead I'm reading/commenting about screen time. I think, mobile devices especially, are addictive in ways that prior media was just not. I often feel the way I felt after a few months of being a regular smoker - not really getting much pleasure from being online and knowing that I'm not really learning anything useful, but not really able to stop either. (I should note I did quit smoking entirely shortly after getting to that point though)

I'm seconding 'baddox here. I binge on books harder than on TV series, and often sacrifice sleep just to keep reading.

Observing people around me and the way they interact with all kind of media, including books, I'm starting to believe there's a more general factor here. Something about how deep a person wants to immerse themselves in the fictional world. For instance, most books, movies and TV shows that have an actual plot (i.e. not sitcoms / comedies) are a solitary affair for me - because with other people around, I can't properly engage on the emotional level. But I know plenty of people who watch the same movies while doing chores, read the same books five pages at the time, while talking, etc., at no point reaching (IMO) any kind of immersion. I observed the across-media correlation here - those who engage deeply with movies, do so with books and videogames. Those who don't engage with one medium, don't engage with others either.

I believe the latter type complains most about how their not-favourite media is "addictive".

I have certainly had the same experience with a book.

Yeah but how long does it take to read a book? Even if someone was binging on War and Peace, or The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, one is addicted only for a few weeks or months at most- the internet is infinite.

Not really arguing either way here but I don't think the analogy really holds up. There are many books just like there are many websites.

I guess the differentiating factor is the instant availability. You can go to a library pick out one book, and unless it's exceptional you'll only be able to read it for some amount of time before you feel like you need to do something else. With the internet, the "something else" can still be the internet.

And with a book, if you're truly binging on it, then youll be done in several days at most for the longer books. And, chances are, you won't be going back to the library for another book right away and, if you do, the next one probably won't be as bingeworthy.

I guess I can see the analogy but it's still like comparing nicotine to caffeine.

> I guess I can see the analogy but it's still like comparing nicotine to caffeine.

Nitpick, but nicotine != cigarettes, and nicotine alone isn't that (if at all) habit-forming.

So is the bookstore.

I have this specific memory in primary school of sitting by myself during class when everyone else was either on the mat or doing whatever the order of the day was and I was absorbed in reading a stars wars novel to the complete exclusion of what I was supposed to be doing.

I never shut up in class and would constantly talk on the mat to other kids and was often separated for that. I think the teacher just left me the hell alone absorbed in my Star Wars novel that day because at least I wasn't distracting anyone.

Fond memory that.