Social media is like the ancient digital pet Tamagotchi. You have to feed and tend to it constantly and yet rarely get anything out of it.

In the coming days, I will spring-clean my account, delete old posts and replies, after which I will take some time to think about my future strategy.

This is by no means to say that any of you Mastodonians are causing my frustration. It is a structural dilemma. And it is platform independent:

Well over 700 people follow me on Mastodon, close to 80 on Instagram — and yet, on *both* platforms hardly *any* of my posts gets more than five to ten reactions of *any* kind, and rarely any comments at all.

One of the main reasons, as far as I can tell, is that social media applications are designed with the intent to distract people with ever more, more, more input so as to keep them glued to the screen.

Although this is not the idea behind Mastodon in particular and the fediverse in general, most people are used to this behaviour, hence replicate it here, too.

Also, it seems to me that people talk more and listen less these days.

Trying to gather a following to support my music seems impossible at this point.

#SocialMedia #Instagram #Mastodon #Fediverse #MusicPromotion #SelfPromotion #Distraction #StolenFocus #TooMuchInput

I just finished reading “Stolen Focus: Why you can’t pay attention - and how to think deeply again” by Johann Hari. It is outstanding. Somewhat ironically, I found it easy to stay focused on because of how relatable everything he talks about is. Highly recommend it if you’re dealing with that nagging feeling of - squirrel! #StolenFocus

This book is taunting me. Every day I get distracted from getting it and reading it is proof of its thesis!

https://stolenfocusbook.com/

#StolenFocus #focus

I've monitored #COVID news since 2020. My strong opinion: the top perpetuator of COVID misinformation = shrinking attention spans & evaporating news rituals. https://nytimes.com/2023/01/15/business/auburn-tiktok-ban-students.html Kudos to these colleges which removed their TikTok accounts 👍. Publishing to a TikTok account is an endorsement of the medium. Auburn revoked their video-only social media endorsement. #literacy #stolenfocus #video #text #misinformation #disinformation

This explains why I find it tough to read on the Ipad. The glare is bad enough, but the restlessness that I feel when reading is hard to deal with. The constant nagging of "Check #SocialMedia !" or Notifications suddenly popping up etc.

This is tragic because Mihaly Csikzentmihalyi says that the simplest and most common form of "flow" that people experience is reading a book but the constant distraction is disrupting this. 2/2

#Reading #StolenFocus #AmReading #NonFiction

Reading Stolen Focus. The chapter, "The Collapse of Sustained Reading", revealed that the screen is "training" us to read differently.

We tend to skip and scan when reading on screens. But if we do it long enough, it will bleed onto other areas, causing us to read on paper the same way. - Anne Mangen, professor of literacy at Stavanger University in Norway 1/2

#Reading #StolenFocus #AmReading #NonFiction

In 2022, I didn't only read the most books I’ve ever read, but I also reignited my love for comic books and manga. From the philosophy of virtual reality to important stories of bravery, these were my favorite books of 2022. I hope to read more fiction next year. If you have recommendations, please let me know!

#books #bookreviews #reading #literature #philosophy #criticalthinking #williammacaskill #whatweowethefuture #davidchalmers #virtualreality #vrphilosophy #johannhari #stolenfocus

I've been reading Johann Hari's #StolenFocus where he describes what social media could look like, how it could be better, and ways to give control back to the user. Is #Mastodon that space? I'm excited to find out.

#StolenFocus
#EarRead
今天读到第七章了。

怎么说呢，前面作者关于本人（部分存疑的）实践脱离数码分心+采访科学家寻找解释的部分都OK，但从第六章开始变成了“有良心的硅谷前从业者aka孤胆英雄挑战整个行业”的cliche。因为算是商业写作这个领域同行，所以作者的畅销书笔法对我来说可以说是毫无作用只会扣分。

也许因为我自己就在media studies和datafication的相关领域学习和进行研究，书中对于社会影响这方面的论调确实显得没什么新意，草草翻过去，看看后面是否有什么有趣的内容吧。

顺带一提，刚查到作者本人十年前曾经因为剽窃和恶意编辑维基百科页面导致辞职+归还奥威尔奖——真是有种“文科白男不意外”的感觉。

#StolenFocus
#EarRead

第四章讲人们目前遇到的阅读能力减退的情况，作者提到自己采访的一位哈佛教授发现学生们已经很难去读（哪怕很短的）书，所以他越来越多布置播客和Youtube视频给他们看作为替代。

这让我还挺费解的，因为我其实反而是听播客和看视频的时候很容易走神（虽然读书时也就那样）。2020年下半年上网课时痛苦不堪，因为这两者都是固定时间线性前进的，很难根据我自己的速度随时调整。

而且，也许是我的偏见，但我觉得播客和视频相比起文字来说信息密度（以及进一步而言的效率）是很低的，低到很容易达到我感到“无聊”于是走神的阈值——我经常感到自己在“等”节目里的人把一句话说完。因此，如果说阅读是自己开着车随心所欲地在公路上奔驰的话，看视频或者听播客就像坐固定速度的公交（两者如今还真是我的公交伴侣），也许很方便，但其实付出了“个人化”的代价。

#StolenFocus
#EarRead
作者采访的教授, Sune Lehmann, 提到自己看见扎克伯格那张著名VR照时的反应：未来会有一群上流社会的人注意到这一点（然后安全地生活在现实中），而社会上其余的人则会一直生活在信息超载中,任人摆布。

#StolenFocus
#读书笔记
作者试图买一个*完全不能上网*的手机，被反问说万一有紧急情况怎么办，作者一语成谶：“我又不是美国总统，不需要在万一俄罗斯入侵乌克兰的时候签订政令……”

Wrote a new book review and summary.

Stolen Focus: Why you can't pay attention -- and How to think deeply again

https://njoseph.me/mediawiki/Books/Stolen_Focus

#Books #StolenFocus #AttentionCrisis #CruelOptimism #SurveillanceCapitalism #Hypervigilance #MentalHealth #Flow

#JohannHari and #StephenFry on
#StolenFocus | 5x15

Why have we lost our ability to #focus? What are the causes? And, most importantly, how do we get it back?Join 5x15 to hear about Johann Hari's journey to the...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFi2NkFJghI

#book #JohannHari
#StolenFocus : Why You Can't Pay Attention - and How to Think Deeply Again

Our ability to pay attention is collapsing. From the New York Times bestselling author of Chasing the Scream and Lost Connections comes a groundbreaking examination of why this is happening—and how to get our attention back.

https://stolenfocusbook.com/mobile/