Every minute reading is a minute not looking at social media!
As a teenager, I never enjoyed reading. I always saw it as something I had to do for school. I probably neither find the motivation for it, nor a type of books I could appreciate and have fun reading. I grew in a house full of books and having the best role model possible in my dad. However, until not that long ago, I just wanted to play football, play video games, and spend time out with my friends. In short, I never thought about reading as something joyful or useful.
But then, somewhere around four years ago, I started reading more frequently. My dad recommended some excellent detective, science fiction, and space opera books and I started to read for fun when I had some time before going to bed. Without me realizing and quoting star wars, that was the spark that would later light the fire of my passion for reading.
"That was the spark that would later light the fire of my passion for reading. "
When reading started to be something I liked, it soon became a habit and the habit boosted my interest in other kinds of books I would have never been passionate about before. For the last two years, together with fictional and detective books, I started reading books from other fields like psychology, investment, finance, history, and self-help. I cannot express in words how much I have learned from reading. I am sure that a tiny part of how I am comes from it and I am incredibly grateful, especially to the person that started that spark in me.
Of course, I am trying to encourage you to read as much as you can. However, everybody needs to find their balance. If you would let me suggest something, I would start with topics you are convinced that will be of interest to you and then evolve from there. If you enjoy reading, you will discover an amazing way of learning and spending time!
"If you enjoy reading, you will discover an amazing way of learning and spending time!"
Why reading is even more important in the world of social media?
In a world where super-powerful algorithms are fighting to keep us in front of the screen and everybody is active on social media, we need to find ways to fight back (Strongly recommend the Social Dilemma Documentary on Netflix). No matter how much I want to read, several nights a week I find myself looking at the phone on my bed scrolling through Youtube. Most of the times I need to tell myself to stop and open the book. By the second I do it, I forget about the phone and I love what I read, but I might have spent 30 minutes already, if not way more, looking at a nonsense screen. I came to realize that every minute I read is a minute I am not looking at my phone. Reading paper books might be one of the thousands of tools we have forgotten that we can use to stop looking at our phone and making use of it might be helpful in a dimension higher than just reading. I hope you bear that in mind.
"I came to realize that every minute I read is a minute I am not looking at my phone."
From a friend,
Pepe
