Re:The myth of the golden age of reading
by naravara on Tuesday October 01, 2019 @11:10AM
(#21126168)
Yeah this whole article seemed a bit too keen on overcorrecting. Most of the people I've seen complaining about not reading enough anymore aren't comparing their current reading habits to an imagined history, it's their observations of how their own habits have changed over time. It's personal experience.
Now part of that might just be that 10 years ago we had fewer stresses and responsibilities so this is more of an age cohort thing, but I don't think so. I read and hear the same concern from people in their 30s (who were in their early 20s when smartphones happened) to people in their 40s, 50s, and 60s. The always online, notifications pinging in your pocket all day world seems to be the common denominator.
I completely agree with this. Having spent the first half of my professional life without the always on-internet in my pocket, I couldn't agree more. And even now, I have to force myslef to distraction free time to try and read, and it's so much more difficult than it used to be.
In fact, I'm going back to traditional paper books, so that I don't have a simple swipe to distract me. I started digital reading on a Kindle, but don't plan on replacing my 6 year old one. And then I tried transitioning to Kindle on the iPad and my Android phone. Too easy to get distracted.
Re:The myth of the golden age of reading
by milesvp on Tuesday October 01, 2019 @03:55PM
(#21129848)
I don't know which kindle you have, but I wanted to say, that I finally bought a kindle (paper white) and it has been a breath of fresh air. It's possibly my best purchase this year. I use it when I want escapism without the noise that is my phone. For me it's turned into a good medium ground even though I prefer a book's aesthetics. The last book I tried to read, I literally could only make it 2/3 of the way before it was impractical to hold one handed, a limitation of reading while holding twins until they fall asleep. Also the backlight. I can read a book without having to turn on a light when dealing with said twins in the middle of the night.
"Even before the digital age, book-lovers were always prone to distraction"
Yeah, they were, but not in "the whole world reachable and available for distraction 24/7 , reading on a web-surfing capable device, in the social-media era", way...
You might get away with presenting this view 20-30 years into the future, but as of now, there are lots of us who have lived through both times as adults and can do the comparison...