Today in embarrassing things I’d rather not admit about myself, I came to the realization that I consume way too much short-form content. Like so much short-form content that it was becoming a genuine detriment to my well-being. My first instinct upon this realization was to go “well can you blame me? I’m a niche internet microcelebrity. I need to know what others are thinking too“. Turns out that the answer is a resounding yes, I can blame myself for this.
This is something I’ve thought a lot about, as someone who’s loved reading from a very early age and has certainly felt the effects of social media on my attention span.
And as a fellow insomniac, I can’t stress enough how much reading-in print!-has assuaged my sleeping issues. There’s that wonderful moment when you’re digesting words on paper, and even if they interest you, you start drifting off and catch yourself reading the same sentence three times. As soon as that moment comes I know I can fall straight off to sleep.
Haha when I was a little lad, I used to read so late into the night that I’d fall asleep mid-sentence, often dropping my book onto the floor and losing my page in the process. Would love to get back to that level of sleepiness…
Good stuff starting down this path, man. I’ve had the same experience you mentioned at the end, how turning off the consumption seems to add massive chunks of capacity for real life that seemed so out of reach before. I always get pulled back in unfortunately, but this post was a nice boost to set up those timers again.
I’m trying to keep it really casual and approach it in a way that won’t require a ton of willpower to maintain the habit. Hoping that leads to some longevity for the changes
Keep it up you won’t regret it! Moderation is the hardest route to take. I quit social media as a resolution last year and it changed my life. Everything is social media now so I cut out consuming content fed from algorithms. I adapted to pull the content instead of being forced fed. I have zero regret about finding out stuff I don’t care about (like who Ice Spice is) at the same time as the general population. Good luck!
This is something I’ve thought a lot about, as someone who’s loved reading from a very early age and has certainly felt the effects of social media on my attention span.
And as a fellow insomniac, I can’t stress enough how much reading-in print!-has assuaged my sleeping issues. There’s that wonderful moment when you’re digesting words on paper, and even if they interest you, you start drifting off and catch yourself reading the same sentence three times. As soon as that moment comes I know I can fall straight off to sleep.
Haha when I was a little lad, I used to read so late into the night that I’d fall asleep mid-sentence, often dropping my book onto the floor and losing my page in the process. Would love to get back to that level of sleepiness…
Good stuff starting down this path, man. I’ve had the same experience you mentioned at the end, how turning off the consumption seems to add massive chunks of capacity for real life that seemed so out of reach before. I always get pulled back in unfortunately, but this post was a nice boost to set up those timers again.
I’m trying to keep it really casual and approach it in a way that won’t require a ton of willpower to maintain the habit. Hoping that leads to some longevity for the changes
Keep it up you won’t regret it! Moderation is the hardest route to take. I quit social media as a resolution last year and it changed my life. Everything is social media now so I cut out consuming content fed from algorithms. I adapted to pull the content instead of being forced fed. I have zero regret about finding out stuff I don’t care about (like who Ice Spice is) at the same time as the general population. Good luck!
That's very interesting WRT pulling the content on your own terms instead - definitely something to think about going forward. And thank you!