Tuesday, July 25, 2017

The Reading-less World

I've been noticing all around me over the past few years - and even within my habits as well - and it's not looking good.

Our world is becoming a reading-less world. 

As Human Beings, we are sitting on our butts more and looking at the blue glowing screens in our hands, on our desktops and we're being hypnotised by the internet to put down that lovely book which is sitting next to us and to jump on Twitter, SnapChat and other snap-happy sites and get our shot of quick happiness.

This is a bad thing to happen; and it's only going to become worse if we don't admit that we're all addicted to this.

I wrote a flash fiction on my other blog titled: 'Dear Participant' which is linked through to Terrible Minds blog of Chuck Wendig's and it struck a real nerve with a lot of my readers. Chuck told us to pick an uncertain evil and write about it - an evil that doesn't look like or feel like it's going to be anything harmful, but it it is. I picked the internet... and how! In the end of the piece I wrote, I have the internet telling us that we have sold our souls to - not the Devil - but to the internet, and we are its puppets.

And you know something? That piece of writing really spooked a lot of people - myself included. I'm not saying I'm not addicted: I am. But there are some days in the week where I have a tech-free day; usually it's on the weekend and I'll get my butt outside and into the garden to mow the lawn, clean up the weeds and then back into the house and wash the floors or declutter something. After I've done some good cleaning up of something (I like to have done something constructive and that I can see has been done around my place), I sit down in my Reading Chair and write in my journal, and read some of a book I'm currently reading. It's just nice to do that... I don't care how long I sit and read for, so long I get through my pages. 

This is something I don't always get to, but as much as I struggle with my new habit of reading as much as I can, I do publicly swear that I will get myself back into the habit of reading more books again. 

You have to go back on the sidebar and see that I used to read up to 30 books a year when I began this blog... and now? I've read 2. This is piddly... really piddly... and I am disgusted with myself. However, I'm making a promise to myself to get my nose into more of my books and to get in and read more - day and night - and keep away from this dreaded computer before bed!

So, have you noticed a drop in your reading stakes over the last few years? If so, how are you going to remedy it? You have read how I'm working on my addiction to the internet... now, it's your turn to make a promise to yourself and everyone here. Leave your comment below and let's get ourselves and everyone reading more again! Until my next post, happy reading! 

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