{"id":2530,"date":"2024-05-12T15:04:55","date_gmt":"2024-05-12T15:04:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/guillembruix.com\/store\/?p=2530"},"modified":"2024-05-18T22:07:17","modified_gmt":"2024-05-18T22:07:17","slug":"fck-social-media-read-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/guillembruix.com\/store\/fck-social-media-read-books\/","title":{"rendered":"F*ck Social Media. Read\u00a0Books."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I spend too much time doom-scrolling on Twitter (X), Instagram, YouTube\u2026 I\u2019m trying to convince myself that this is a necessary part of my work to be aware of technology news and design trends. How can I be a good professional if I\u2019m disconnected from the industry, right? The uncomfortable truth, as you can imagine, is that I\u2019m hooked. Yep, I can\u2019t go to the toilet without my phone. Every work break that I take, I need to check the latest posts. Before going to sleep, of course, I check my news feed until I fall asleep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s 2024. We all know how this shit works: dopamine short-term satisfaction, clickbait, social FOMO, customized algorithms tailored to our interests and fears\u2026 We all understand that ads rule the content, \u201cif the product is free, you are the product.\u201d<\/em> Yes, we all know that, but I\u2019m not writing this to say everything is fucked, and Zuckerberg and his algorithms are pure evil, we should ban them all. Nope, social media has aspects that I like. It keeps people connected. I can share the projects that I\u2019m working on, and I see what others are doing. We can connect and start professional or personal relationships. Social media also powers decentralization and permitless freedom of speech. Independent journalists and content creators can share their news and points of view on their own YouTube channels or X accounts. They can reach millions of viewers without asking permission from any traditional or established TV or newspaper, and all of this is great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The real problem<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Then, if social media is fine, what is the problem? It\u2019s me! My unhealthy relationship with social media. Gathering dopamine shots feels good in the moment, but makes you feel more anxious and sad after long scrolling sessions when you realize you spent much more time than you wanted. Sometimes, you end up consuming content from people that you don\u2019t like about topics that you don\u2019t care, but there you are keeping scrolling. I\u2019m aware of my issue, but since I can\u2019t go to the pharmacy to buy the equivalent of nicotine gum for my social media addiction, I need to find my own cure. I\u2019ve tried to disable notifications; it didn\u2019t work out, I still have the habit of opening these apps. I\u2019ve tried to track my screen time with the \u201cSettings > Screen Time\u201d<\/em> feature. It only works to acknowledge the shameful number of hours that I spend on these apps but doesn\u2019t stop me from keeping going there. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My plan<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I just wish to spend at least half of these hours doing something that makes me feel better. Not necessarily something productive, since it is part of my free time. Something that can entertain me but without the mental damaging side of social media, something like reading books. I have many books collecting dust on my bookshelf that I want to read. Books that I\u2019ve already started and enjoy. I wish to finish them, but my lack of long-term focus makes it quite hard to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Working out sucks, but I love it!<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Over doom-scrolling social media is like over eating fast food. It feels great at the moment, but makes you feel bad afterward. Going to the gym or working out, is the opposite. Sometimes you can have fun, but usually, it makes you feel bad at the moment. It\u2019s hard, painful, you sweat, you just want to stop, but it feels great afterward. Reading books is like going to the gym for me. It can be fun sometimes, but is hard at the moment. Hard to keep the focus, difficult not to be distracted about the 100 other inputs around me, like screens, music, people talking\u2026 However, every book that I finish, sometimes every chapter that I finish, it feels great! Especially if I learned something new or I been engaged with the story. It gives me this feeling of progress. I don\u2019t regret at all if I spend more time than I planned for my reading session. What about you? You are in the middle of reading this article now. How does it feel? Is your mind starting to feel tired? Wondering why spending your time and cognitive energy with me when you can read some easy and short X posts or watching satisfying short videos with music and confetti on TikTok? I can\u2019t give you a sexy dance, but if you keep reading till the end, I have a little gift for you at the last paragraph.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reading books is a habit<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

You have to build the habit of going to the gym regularly before it becomes something natural or part of your day-to-day routine. I don\u2019t go to the gym nowadays, but I do daily workouts at home every morning. After I wake up and before going to shower and having breakfast, I have my 20-minute moment for my exercises in my dining room. It\u2019s almost automatic. I don\u2019t have to plan it, I don\u2019t have to organize anything, I just do it without thinking. It wasn\u2019t like this at the beginning. It was difficult to find the right moment, I was easily distracted, spending more time than I planned and struggling with the consistency until I took it seriously, and I started to track my sessions. I signed a \u201ccontract\u201d to myself to achieve my goals. Then, I started working out every day until I began to feel the accomplishment and notice the results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What has been helping me to read more so far is exactly the same strategy I used with my workouts: setting goals, tracking my reading sessions, and visualize the progress. I\u2019m still working on it, I haven\u2019t achieved all my goals yet, but I\u2019m progressing. At the end, what I\u2019m doing is building a good habit by following five simple steps that you can follow too. There are a lot of books and online content about building habits, but the main idea is as simple as that. You can use a piece of paper, a spreadsheet, a reading tracker mobile app or like I did: build a customized mobile app. Using an app is probably the easiest way, but all the other options are valid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 5 steps that are helping me build my reading habit:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

1. Setting up my goals and reasons<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

My main goal is to spend half of the time I used to spend on social media reading books instead. This means reading a minimum of 10 pages per day. That\u2019s my goal! Also, it\u2019s important that you understand the reasons why you want to read more. For example, they could be: <\/p>\n\n\n\n