I used to be able to read books for like half a day straight as a young kid. After a point I began to switch to playing games for the majority of the day and turned into a shut in. After that I slowly got out of the stage of video games and now I limit myself to only few of them, taking only about 3-4 hours per day. Then I tend to have a lot of free time during the day. I mostly use it to scroll through shorts and reels which I’ve managed to stop since I just waste my time doing it, but otherwise I tend to read random anime/manga in my free time. I also tend to watch a bit of 2/3 interesting short (12 episode) anime every season they release. I mostly have cut down my tech involvement to a part of the day.
Now, I want to start getting back to reading books in my free time. And not like fictional novels, I’m talking philosophical books like those you’d see in a reading enthusiast’s shelf Like the geetha, theories about life, novels about Israel conflict, ways of life, that stuff.
Everytime I pick up one of these books to read I start reading a few pages and all of a sudden any vested interest in one of them goes into the dust. I suddenly get that urge to open my laptop or phone Even though there’s nothing there that I really feel interested doing. It’s like there’s no distractions and somehow I still get distracted by wanting to do something else when reading. I used to read 9-10 chapters within the amount of time that I have now. I can still do it but just that feeling of being occupied with the book isn’t there.
I want to read books and I willingly reduced my screen time to do so so that I can get a life but so far it’s not working.
And don’t give me bullshit solutions like reduce your screen time like every old person from the millenial generation because I’ve tried that, and having the devices taken away from me just makes me want to use them more when I get them. I am already actively deciding to cut my time with it, and if that doesn’t work then primitive old answers like that just make things worse. I find it easier to focus when I can actively use the tech when I have it at my disposal but don’t vs when I can’t actually use it because it’s taken away and I’m forced not to use it. Doing that is literally how I use it nowadays. Sparingly.
But every time I pick up a book I can’t even read forward at all. After a few sentences I just get bored. Then I tend to switch back to the devices and suddenly realise that there’s nothing fun to do here too.
So I just go outside and walk around not doing much and not really doing anything walking with an empty mind. Then nothing goes on and my objective of reading isn’t met.
All I want to do is balance reading and gaming. But if such an issue Stands in the way of reading then I don’t know how to achieve it. It’s also necessary for me to read for reasons I can’t mention.
Give me some answers, I don’t want the same old answers anyone would have already heard like be active or touch grass or reduce screen time.
I’ve tried it all. Show me some ideas that I can try to get my interest back.
by FunGroup8977
4 Comments
Why do you want to read philosophical books? What is your motivation behind it?
Touch grass
Quite literally, just take your book and go sit in the park. It’s a beautiful sunny day outside and you’ll probably enjoy it
Reading is a skill that needs to be maintained, if you don’t use it you will lose the ability to focus on it. So going from not reading at all to whatever philosophical brick you’re trying to read is not going to go well…. try something more accessible first, then go to pretentious philosophy when you’ve built up your reading muscles again.
Or you know… acknowledge philosophy is just not for you, and read something more entertaining.
It doesn’t sound like you enjoy reading the books you’re reading, so why read them?
If it’s for some special reason, well this is a great opportunity to work on your willpower.
You know how quitting cigarettes is really hard for people? A large part of that is because of dopamine. You know what else releases dopamine? Gaming and those reels you keep watching.
When you brain is bored it wants to get that dopamine release from easy methods, like watching a reel, instead of harder methods like finishing a book.
You have to have the willpower to focus on reading even when you are tempted by your alternate activities. That’s why people recommend putting your devices away, because they can literally act as an addiction, and it can be difficult to just “not look at them”.
I’m not saying you are or aren’t, but based on you making this post I think maybe taking a week or two break from reels and gaming completely to reset a bit might be a good idea.