A brief complaint:
Recently, it’s come to my attention that I don’t read nearly as much as I used to. I’ve talked to other people who used to be voracious readers, and they share my sentiment. Unfortunately, it’s difficult to get to the root of this problem, because there are many different things that factor in. However, I believe that I’ve figured out what is causing my attention span to decrease.
Phones.
In this day and age, they’re necessities, whether it be for work, school or just keeping in touch with friends. However, they’re also massive hindrances when it comes to reading and trying to be productive. Instead of working hard for your grades or entertainment, you can simply pick up a phone and get instant, mind-numbing gratification. Gone are the days when you actually had to think; now all you have to do is open Instagram and watch a couple of “comedians” do their poorly written bits...if you can even call them that.
Unfortunately, books take effort and aren’t very visual. I'll be honest. Given the option of having to put in an effort to get entertainment versus putting in the bare minimum, I'll pick the latter almost any day of the week. It's kind of unfair, really. There's no way for books to compete. The accessibility of "cheap" sources of media and amusement far outweigh the ease and accessibility of books.
However, you could ask anyone and they'd say that books are a much more educational and fruitful hobby. Books not only add to your vocabulary, they helped broaden your mind to different opinions and perspectives. Social media can rarely accomplish the same. In fact, every time I go onto Instagram I feel like I'm losing brain cells rather than gaining them.
So how do we turn this around? To be quite honest, I have no idea. If I knew I would've done it by now. My best guess is that we have to stop our reliance on phones, or at least stop going on social media as much as we do. Unfortunately, until we manage to sever ourselves from our phones, we are permanently enslaved to the entertainment equivalent of "fast food."