I am a life long reader, and though I don't always manage "a book a week" it is because I have a rotation of 8 different books. As I go through them I often finish them in clumps, so I can read 10 or more in a month. Some of them are light reading: when I'm frazzled by doing my taxes or dealing with malware or just rolling my eyes at trumpism, I turn to them. I'm particularly prone to time travel/multiverse SF--would there were a brane in which trump had never been born.
Back in 2022 I read a fascinating book called Stolen Focus which is important for the problem of "too much scrolling." It is by Johann Hari. Though it goes through all the things that are distracting about the internet, the thing the book is concerned with is the effect on our ability to focus for any length of time on anything since we are encouraged by the ad-driven business model to click away to something new (with new ads) as frequently as possible. 
Even if you come back to where you were, the time it takes to readjust to the info there is measurable. So, like trying to multitask, these switches cost you time as well as loss of the habit of focus.
The tracking capabilities of social media and other internet sites is, of course, a problem, but not central to the book’s argument. What is hurtful to real dialogue is the superficiality of thought that this constant shifting of focus causes. We lose the ability to ponder complexities, in the constant turn to the new enticement
In other words, it isn't just the conflict between the "doer" and the "planner" that creates a problem. It is the actual effect on our MINDS of the constant switching, impairing our ability to concentrate on ANYTHING. Perhaps it will help ones "planner" if one considers the internet in terms of actual brain damage: the old pictures of the egg and the brain on drugs.
Great comment Susan! I haven’t read the Hari book but have heard about the switching costs of constantly mentally changing track. I recently revisited Nicholas Carr’s piece “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” from the 2000s which touched on the early onset of this dynamic, which preceded smartphones.
That article about Google is really prescient. Predictably I got briefly sidetracked by the link to Deep Reading. And THAT opened up one of the mysteries of the internet How could an article written in 2008 link to an article written in 2013?
Thank you for this—I avoid social media per se but can scroll endlessly through news and web sites instead of reading great novels. This is very helpful. I love Substack because my future self can curate my reads to worthwhile writers like you.
We have a bookshop of press-related books we recommend.
https://bookshop.org/shop/MAD
Excellent plug, Jonathan :)
Ugh, thank you for this timely invitation.
I am a life long reader, and though I don't always manage "a book a week" it is because I have a rotation of 8 different books. As I go through them I often finish them in clumps, so I can read 10 or more in a month. Some of them are light reading: when I'm frazzled by doing my taxes or dealing with malware or just rolling my eyes at trumpism, I turn to them. I'm particularly prone to time travel/multiverse SF--would there were a brane in which trump had never been born.
Back in 2022 I read a fascinating book called Stolen Focus which is important for the problem of "too much scrolling." It is by Johann Hari. Though it goes through all the things that are distracting about the internet, the thing the book is concerned with is the effect on our ability to focus for any length of time on anything since we are encouraged by the ad-driven business model to click away to something new (with new ads) as frequently as possible. 
Even if you come back to where you were, the time it takes to readjust to the info there is measurable. So, like trying to multitask, these switches cost you time as well as loss of the habit of focus.
The tracking capabilities of social media and other internet sites is, of course, a problem, but not central to the book’s argument. What is hurtful to real dialogue is the superficiality of thought that this constant shifting of focus causes. We lose the ability to ponder complexities, in the constant turn to the new enticement
In other words, it isn't just the conflict between the "doer" and the "planner" that creates a problem. It is the actual effect on our MINDS of the constant switching, impairing our ability to concentrate on ANYTHING. Perhaps it will help ones "planner" if one considers the internet in terms of actual brain damage: the old pictures of the egg and the brain on drugs.
Great comment Susan! I haven’t read the Hari book but have heard about the switching costs of constantly mentally changing track. I recently revisited Nicholas Carr’s piece “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” from the 2000s which touched on the early onset of this dynamic, which preceded smartphones.
That article about Google is really prescient. Predictably I got briefly sidetracked by the link to Deep Reading. And THAT opened up one of the mysteries of the internet How could an article written in 2008 link to an article written in 2013?
Thank you for this—I avoid social media per se but can scroll endlessly through news and web sites instead of reading great novels. This is very helpful. I love Substack because my future self can curate my reads to worthwhile writers like you.
I find listening to audio books while preparing meals and cleaning up after is a good way to increase my book consumption.