boxer_dogs_dance t1_j71fgah wrote on February 3, 2023 at 11:33 AM

Johan Hari's book Stolen Focus is one of several that shows how social media is designed to be addictive and shortens attention span.

Making a commitment to read for a minimum amount of time each day and doing it can help.

Edit, r/bookclub and r/classicbookclub and r/fantasy among others choose books to read as part of a group with discussion.

mikloved OP t1_j71h7uz wrote on February 3, 2023 at 11:53 AM

Definitely understand how that could play a factor in attention span. I don’t know how much it relates to me though, because I’m truly not on socials much at all? This is even only my first or second post in the two years I’ve had an account! But I suppose how much time is too much is relative to the person, so it definitely could be affecting me. I really feel like what plays a huge part is just that I went through a rather rough time and my mind has just had this fog ever since? So when I sit down to read, sometimes I don’t feel as capable of deciphering the language of the old books I want to get into or I feel like I’m not catching metaphors like I did back then. And I just remember school having such a good curriculum that helped me break the barrier on some reads back then, so I thought it would be interesting if anyone knew of something that I could follow along with kind of like we did back then! Thank you so much for taking the time to reply!

Edit- I’ll look into those and see how the discussions are, thank you so much again!

boxer_dogs_dance t1_j71ihba wrote on February 3, 2023 at 12:07 PM

So I aimed and missed by assuming that someone I met on social media was active. Sorry. Depression and grief can absolutely interfere with attention span and focus. I do recommend the bookclub and classicbookclub subreddits.

Coursera offers university courses online. You could also start with short stories and novellas. r/suggestmeabook is a good resource for finding literature.