• yardratianSoma@lemmy.ca
    8·
    6 hours ago

    facts . . .I started reading novels at an early age, started writing my own short stories, and became a voracious reader into high-school till I hit university . . . .

    But as a kid, I thought I would become a writer, and a great one at that. Now, I still love writing but my love for poetry and fiction didn’t translate to job opportunities hahaha

  • Eq0@literature.cafe
    61·
    6 hours ago

    It didn’t help that the world we are in is now and more geared towards short term formats (memes, tiktoks, snippets of news…). A world were the ability to read long texts is undervalued and eroded every day

  • Wilco@lemmy.zip
    4·
    6 hours ago

    If only you would have been born into a wealthy family instead of reading … slacker.

      • jahtnamas [sie/hir]@slrpnk.netEnglish
        5·
        9 hours ago

        i mean i’ll consume fiction in short bursts (like fanfic chapter updates) but it’s very hard to focus on large paragraphs and i get annoyed that by the end i’m not absorbing the material at all. something i had subscribed to on ao3 came out with a chapter recently that used basic html colour rendering for some of the chapter’s symbolism but it clashed with my dark theme and was unreadable and i had to ask the co-author if it was okay if i used reader mode to actually see the fucking words.

        also i got punished for spending too much time on the computer in my teens by having to spend time reading books. i absolutely abhor the format of physical books now. i’m an OG harry potter hater because my stepmom started me on the 4th book and i was so fucking lost on what anything was. i did end up going back and reading the first 3 and enjoying them and finally understanding the 4th, but i got halfway thru book 5 (when it was new) and i was just so over it all.

        • Eq0@literature.cafe
          4·
          6 hours ago

          I know you are not asking for advice, but your situation is not unique, at all. The age of scrolling has impacted our capability of long term concentration, has eroded the parts of the brain supposed to let us get «  into the flow » and store information for the medium term (and therefore the long term) memory.

          If (big if) you want to undo it, it’s a lot of work, but it will not only help with reading, but also with all long term efforts, such as long term host projects that require sustained concentration, learning new skills and so forth. The path is to decrease the amount of short term enjoyment every day, and slowly replace it with longer term enjoyment. This practically looks like less scrolling and more reading/crafting/exercising without distractions. Short stories and podcasts or documentaries are a great form factor to start un-scrolling. Personally, if you want to get back into reading, I advice a low stake page turner as a first book. Something to train the brain while enjoying every page. A step at a time the length of the books can increase, or not! Just get back into enjoying.