“The dumbing down of America is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30 second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance.”
Carl Sagan (The Demon-Haunted World)
This quote by Carl Sagan – one of my favorite science communicators – immediately reminded me of TikTok and other social media apps. It seems that people have lost the ability to focus for long periods of time. All information has to be short and simple. There is little room for in-depth analysis or critical contemplation. In addition, we are encouraging this type of information-sharing by handing out awards to certain “science communicators” that produce childish and superficial content. As I wrote in a previous blog post:
The development of an attention-focused society bothers me. And I am afraid that it will continue to grow as more people try to get their “five second of fame” on TikTok or Instagram. The quality of the content will go down, but we will keep rewarding it.
Instead of wasting time on TikTok or mindlessly scrolling on other social media platforms, you can better sit down with a good book. But how can you read more? Here are some simple tips and tricks that I have come across.
Avoid distractions. Put away your phone. Close your laptop. Turn of the television. Get rid of all possible distractions and pick up a book.
Lower the barrier. This tip is based on the book “Atomic Habits” by James Clear. If you want to build good habits – such as reading more books – you have to make it easy to start. This can be as simple as putting a book in your living room. Instead of turning on the tv, you have a book nearby. In addition, you can increase the effort to do other distracting activities. For example, I store my Nintendo Switch in a cupboard. If I want to play a game, I need to open the cupboard and look for the Nintendo Switch in the back. A book, however, is always ready on the couch.
Always carry a book with you. While waiting in line at the supermarket or at the train station, people quickly take out their phones and start scrolling through random apps. Why not grab a book and read a few pages? I can recommend books that collect short stories or columns, such as “Ten Million Aliens” by Simon Barnes.
Set reading times. Develop a clear reading routine. You can block certain times of the day for reading. I try to read a non-fiction book after dinner and a fiction book before going to sleep. Find your best reading time and stick to it.
Start Small. If you are not into reading yet, don’t try to tackle big books right away. Start with shorter and easy books. Once you get used to reading, you can start scaling up. Eventually, you can give “War and Peace” by Leo Tolstoy a try (still on my reading list, by the way).
Read good books. We are all tempted to go for “classics” that everyone seems to have read already. Even if we don’t like to book, we push through and try to finish it. Don’t be afraid to stop reading a bad book. I am currently reading “Catch-22” by Joseph Heller. Honestly, I don’t like it and I will probably stop reading it soon. Reading should be a fun activity. So, read books that you enjoy. A few months ago, I re-read “The Magic Of Reality” by Richard Dawkins. What a great book. Every evening, I looked forward to reading a few chapters.
Grab a book and start reading!
jente ottenburghs 