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The Death of Daydreaming

(www.afterbabel.com)
707 points isolli | 2 comments | 05 May 25 12:22 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source
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snozolli ◴[05 May 25 15:12 UTC] No.43895965[source]▶
Before smartphones and the Internet, I almost always had a paperback book to read. Bus rides were either me talking to friends (rare, since our schedule didn't match often), reading a book, or uncomfortably fighting the urge to doze off.

While, yes, social media gives us a more pronounced dopamine hit-and-crave cycle, we've always had means of escape at our fingertips.

replies(2): >>43896087 #>>43896539 #
jjulius ◴[05 May 25 16:06 UTC] No.43896539[source]▶
A smartphone and a book are, by and large, different modes of escape with different impacts on the escapee. Scrolling through social media is a far cry from focusing on a single subject for an extended period of time, which is what reading a book does.
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1. Apocryphon ◴[05 May 25 20:28 UTC] No.43899134[source]▶
You could always read a book on your phone.
replies(1): >>43899433 #
2. jjulius ◴[05 May 25 21:03 UTC] No.43899433[source]▶
Totally! But then you've got to make sure all notifications are turned off from every app that might hit you up - not just silenced, but so that they don't even appear over top of the book. And then, of course, there's the temptation to swipe over to a different app that's right there.

A book, however, is just a book.