Free AI web copilot to create summaries, insights and extended knowledge, download it at here

Abstract

. And at the end of the day, all any company really wants is money.I got my first iPhone back in 2010. It was an iPhone 3. And honestly, if I could go back in time and snatch that thing out of my hand and throw it in the bin, I would do. I also joined social media back in 2010.Until those moments, most of my spare waking hours were spent writing, reading, and gaming. I had a family, and I had a fulltime job as well. I used to pride myself with how much writing and reading I could do between my commitments.Back then, I would read an average of 2–3 books per week. And I am talking full-length novels: not novellas or short stories. I would wait for my favourite authors to put out their books, I would buy them, and two days later, I would be in a book hangover, because I’d finished yet another book. But I loved it.Reading has always been part of my life. I read the Lord of the Rings when I was six. I read the Narnia books around the same time. By the time I left junior school to head to senior school, I had read every single book in the school’s curriculum. Even to the point, they had to find me other books to read, because I’d devour them.Books and writing were my life.But something changed.It has been a subtle change. I think the way social media and phones get to us is almost like a frog in a pot of water. If you put a frog in a pan of boiling water, it’s going to hop out and get away. But if you put a frog in a pot of cold water, turn on the heat, the frog will sit there and happily boil to death.I feel my brain is at that boiling point.<h2 id="6ddd">Reading is a Lost Passion</h2>It was a few years ago, maybe three, I said to my friend, I feel like I have lost my passion for reading. Now me, losing my passion for reading, was almost like admitting I had lost part of my soul somewhere. It was hard to say, hard to admit. My 2–3 books a week had declined so much that I was probably reading 2–3 books a year.It’s devastating.I can tell you without a doubt, my phone has done this to me. When I used to wake up in the morning, I used to make a coffee, reach for my cigarettes (I was a smoker back then) and reach for my book. And before we had to get the children up and ready for school, we’d have some time to ourselves. I would read.I was so obsessed with reading that my book would sit on the passenger seat of the car, and I would read at red lights and any traffic delays. When I got to work, I would sit in my car, have a cigarette before going to the office, and get myself another ten minutes of reading time. At work, every break, every moment I wasn’t needed at my desk, my book would be in my hand, and I would read.

Options

At home, it would be the same. I was never without a book.My books and my phone both remind me of that scene in Toy Story 2 when Jessie, the doll, is telling her life to the other characters. She explains how she was a little girl’s favourite toy. How she was loved, cared for and taken everywhere, but as the girl grew up, she slowly got replaced by make-up, clothes, boys, music and all the other things teenage girls get into. Eventually, Jessie, the doll, fell under the bed and was left there, replaced by adulthood.That’s how books feel. They’re the once loved toy under my bed. Every moment I would normally read has now been replaced by my phone.In bed, I’m on my phone, in the bathroom, I’m on my phone, in the car waiting for my wife, I’m on my phone. We all do it, queues at the supermarket, walking down the street, when we wake in the morning, before we sleep, while we’re cooking, while we’re eating, while we’re out with friends.Actually, I think we use phones more than we would use books. I’d never sit and pick up my book while at dinner with a friend, but we all do it with our phones and somehow find it acceptable. These little things and those platforms have found it into every corner of our lives.<h2 id="71a3">But What about Social Media?</h2>But readers like me, it isn’t only the phone itself ruining the love and ability to focus and read on a book, it is social media. Think about it. Social media is snap, snap, snap — instant gratification on gossip and chatter.We love stories. It is part of our make-up. The problem is, we love any story, and most social media posts are stories, just short — concise stories.We can scroll down our feeds and find out about different people we know or used to know, and what they’re doing. Every post from them is a story scene. That snap from your friend at the beach, that rant from the other friend about the cashier who was rude to them; what about the mini video clips that catch our attention? You know the one I mean, where the soldier surprises his child and comes home early from service and turns up at a school presentation, or the dog who was so starved and afraid it curled itself in the corner of the cage and cried. But look at it now, in its forever home.And these stories are great, sure. But what’s the cost to you? What’s the mental cost to all of us?Want to know why you’re not reading books as much?Check your social media usage and how much in the day you’re on your phone. I bet you’re like me and have replaced purposeful reading time with pop, pop, pop, social media status reading.I need to put down my phone and pick my books back up. My phone controls me and I want to make it stop.</article></body>

Is Your Smartphone Destroying Your Reading Habits?

It’s no secret that I have been battling addiction lately. I have talked about it in a few posts and even made public proclamations of my steps to overcome my problem.

I hate being addicted to anything. It’s one of those annoying things we do, like banging our heads against the wall, and even though it hurts, and we want to stop, we still do it anyway.

The addiction I am talking about is the one linked to social media and smartphones. It may sound a little extreme referring to an attempt to stay off my phone, and trying to limit time on social media as battling addictions, but it has been proven that the power of our addictions to smartphones and social media are on par with addictions to gambling, drugs and alcohol, and like gabling, drugs and alcohol addictions, our addictions to social media and phones have their own devastating effects on our lives.

The Proof is in the Science

It is no surprise we can correlate the rise of social media and phone usage with the rise of mental illness such as depression and anxiety.

Our eldest daughter battles with these mental health conditions, but she is also a heavy phone and social media usage. She complains she can’t sleep, yet she sleeps with her phone in her room. She uses it until she goes to sleep, she wakes up to check it in the middle of the night, and it is the first thing in her hand when she wakes up.

Throughout the day, it is a constant companion, joining her for trips to the bathroom or the kitchen, sitting with her when she watches the television. It even attends all family gatherings with her and demands she pay it more attention than the people in her life.

As a result, she regularly complains of not feeling well mentally, of feeling judged by her peers and strangers, of not sleeping, of feeling anxious around actual people, of feeling on edge and so many other things we don’t realise phones and social media do to us.

This is not an uncommon complaint.

They’re Designed to be Addictive

It is widely published now that social media and smartphone companies employ people to tailor-make their platforms and systems to increase addiction. It makes them money if we live on our phones and social media. And at the end of the day, all any company really wants is money.

I got my first iPhone back in 2010. It was an iPhone 3. And honestly, if I could go back in time and snatch that thing out of my hand and throw it in the bin, I would do. I also joined social media back in 2010.

Until those moments, most of my spare waking hours were spent writing, reading, and gaming. I had a family, and I had a fulltime job as well. I used to pride myself with how much writing and reading I could do between my commitments.

Back then, I would read an average of 2–3 books per week. And I am talking full-length novels: not novellas or short stories. I would wait for my favourite authors to put out their books, I would buy them, and two days later, I would be in a book hangover, because I’d finished yet another book. But I loved it.

Reading has always been part of my life. I read the Lord of the Rings when I was six. I read the Narnia books around the same time. By the time I left junior school to head to senior school, I had read every single book in the school’s curriculum. Even to the point, they had to find me other books to read, because I’d devour them.

Books and writing were my life.

But something changed.

It has been a subtle change. I think the way social media and phones get to us is almost like a frog in a pot of water. If you put a frog in a pan of boiling water, it’s going to hop out and get away. But if you put a frog in a pot of cold water, turn on the heat, the frog will sit there and happily boil to death.

I feel my brain is at that boiling point.

Reading is a Lost Passion

It was a few years ago, maybe three, I said to my friend, I feel like I have lost my passion for reading. Now me, losing my passion for reading, was almost like admitting I had lost part of my soul somewhere. It was hard to say, hard to admit. My 2–3 books a week had declined so much that I was probably reading 2–3 books a year.

It’s devastating.

I can tell you without a doubt, my phone has done this to me. When I used to wake up in the morning, I used to make a coffee, reach for my cigarettes (I was a smoker back then) and reach for my book. And before we had to get the children up and ready for school, we’d have some time to ourselves. I would read.

I was so obsessed with reading that my book would sit on the passenger seat of the car, and I would read at red lights and any traffic delays. When I got to work, I would sit in my car, have a cigarette before going to the office, and get myself another ten minutes of reading time. At work, every break, every moment I wasn’t needed at my desk, my book would be in my hand, and I would read.

At home, it would be the same. I was never without a book.

My books and my phone both remind me of that scene in Toy Story 2 when Jessie, the doll, is telling her life to the other characters. She explains how she was a little girl’s favourite toy. How she was loved, cared for and taken everywhere, but as the girl grew up, she slowly got replaced by make-up, clothes, boys, music and all the other things teenage girls get into. Eventually, Jessie, the doll, fell under the bed and was left there, replaced by adulthood.

That’s how books feel. They’re the once loved toy under my bed. Every moment I would normally read has now been replaced by my phone.

In bed, I’m on my phone, in the bathroom, I’m on my phone, in the car waiting for my wife, I’m on my phone. We all do it, queues at the supermarket, walking down the street, when we wake in the morning, before we sleep, while we’re cooking, while we’re eating, while we’re out with friends.

Actually, I think we use phones more than we would use books. I’d never sit and pick up my book while at dinner with a friend, but we all do it with our phones and somehow find it acceptable. These little things and those platforms have found it into every corner of our lives.

But What about Social Media?

But readers like me, it isn’t only the phone itself ruining the love and ability to focus and read on a book, it is social media. Think about it. Social media is snap, snap, snap — instant gratification on gossip and chatter.

We love stories. It is part of our make-up. The problem is, we love any story, and most social media posts are stories, just short — concise stories.

We can scroll down our feeds and find out about different people we know or used to know, and what they’re doing. Every post from them is a story scene. That snap from your friend at the beach, that rant from the other friend about the cashier who was rude to them; what about the mini video clips that catch our attention? You know the one I mean, where the soldier surprises his child and comes home early from service and turns up at a school presentation, or the dog who was so starved and afraid it curled itself in the corner of the cage and cried. But look at it now, in its forever home.

And these stories are great, sure. But what’s the cost to you? What’s the mental cost to all of us?

Want to know why you’re not reading books as much?

Check your social media usage and how much in the day you’re on your phone. I bet you’re like me and have replaced purposeful reading time with pop, pop, pop, social media status reading.

I need to put down my phone and pick my books back up. My phone controls me and I want to make it stop.