The “anti-zoomer” sentiment is partially “anti-my-younger-self” sentiment. I, personally, had to expend a good deal of effort to improve my attention span, wean myself off of social media, and reclaim whole hours of my day. I’m frustrated because I know that more is possible.
I fail to see how this is an indictment of your friend’s character, or an indication that he is incapable of reading.
That friend did, in fact, try multiple times to read books. He got distracted every time. He wanted to be the kind of guy that could finish books, but he couldn’t. I used to be a lot more like he was. For the record, he has since read books (good ones, too).
More likely, he rationally viewed school as a day job, and optimized towards getting the grade that he wanted with a minimum of effort, in order to build slack for other activities, such as performing well on the math team.
Of course. We all did that. I do not identify with my academic performance (I dropped out of college). Also, we went to a boarding school, and as his former roommate, I can tell you that neither of us studied in our free time. He’s just better at doing math than I am.
It’s not that Zoomers can’t read (an accusation that older generations have been leveling against younger ones since time immemorial)
No, this time really is different. I know a guy (not dumb either) who spends >7h a day on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. Some of us can’t sit through movies. Never before in history has there been as strong an optimization pressure for eyeballs, and there is no demographic more subject to that pressure than mine.
(creating a separate thread for this, because I think it’s separate from my other reply)
That friend did, in fact, try multiple times to read books. He got distracted every time. He wanted to be the kind of guy that could finish books, but he couldn’t.
You’ve described the problem exactly. Your friend didn’t have a clear reason to read books. He just had this vague notion that reading books was “good”. That “smart people” read lots of books. Why? Who knows, they just do.
I read a lot. But I have never read just for the sake of reading. All of my reading has a purpose, whether it be to learn more about a particular period of history, improve my programming skills, or maybe just because I think something is interesting, and worth learning more about. I’ve always been confused by people who have, “Read X books in a year,” as a New Year’s resolution. It makes about as much sense to me as, “Eat X foods”.
I know a guy (not dumb either) who spends >7h a day on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube.
When I went to college, I knew a guy who spent >7 hours per day playing World of Warcraft. He ended up dropping out. My dad knows multiple people who failed out of IIT because they spent too much time playing bridge (the card game).
Every generation has its anecdotes about smart people who got nothing done because they were too interested in trivialities.
The “anti-zoomer” sentiment is partially “anti-my-younger-self” sentiment. I, personally, had to expend a good deal of effort to improve my attention span, wean myself off of social media, and reclaim whole hours of my day. I’m frustrated because I know that more is possible.
That friend did, in fact, try multiple times to read books. He got distracted every time. He wanted to be the kind of guy that could finish books, but he couldn’t. I used to be a lot more like he was. For the record, he has since read books (good ones, too).
Of course. We all did that. I do not identify with my academic performance (I dropped out of college). Also, we went to a boarding school, and as his former roommate, I can tell you that neither of us studied in our free time. He’s just better at doing math than I am.
No, this time really is different. I know a guy (not dumb either) who spends >7h a day on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. Some of us can’t sit through movies. Never before in history has there been as strong an optimization pressure for eyeballs, and there is no demographic more subject to that pressure than mine.
Further evidence that I should write a factpost investigating whether attention spans have been declining.
I can deliver, it just takes a while.
(creating a separate thread for this, because I think it’s separate from my other reply)
You’ve described the problem exactly. Your friend didn’t have a clear reason to read books. He just had this vague notion that reading books was “good”. That “smart people” read lots of books. Why? Who knows, they just do.
I read a lot. But I have never read just for the sake of reading. All of my reading has a purpose, whether it be to learn more about a particular period of history, improve my programming skills, or maybe just because I think something is interesting, and worth learning more about. I’ve always been confused by people who have, “Read X books in a year,” as a New Year’s resolution. It makes about as much sense to me as, “Eat X foods”.
When I went to college, I knew a guy who spent >7 hours per day playing World of Warcraft. He ended up dropping out. My dad knows multiple people who failed out of IIT because they spent too much time playing bridge (the card game).
Every generation has its anecdotes about smart people who got nothing done because they were too interested in trivialities.