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posted by Fnord666 on Monday August 19 2019, @03:03AM   Printer-friendly
from the Harrison-Bergeron dept.

Emma Charlton at the World Economic Forum summarizes a report that finds by cutting out three 10-minute social media checks a day you could read as many as 30 more books a year.

"Just a couple of five-minute breaks every hour are hundreds of hours yearly," the Omni Calculator's creators say. "You cut your social media time by half, and you still get plenty of time to read, run or earn money."

It recommends turning off push notifications that appear on your screen, deleting some apps, calling your friends rather than messaging them, and taking short holidays from all social media once in a while.


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  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 19 2019, @03:35AM (21 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 19 2019, @03:35AM (#881950)

    Seeing that most books are ludicrously expensive, I'd read more if books were around $3-5 USD.

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  • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 19 2019, @03:45AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 19 2019, @03:45AM (#881954)

    You have maybe heard of Bit-Torrent? The typical novel is only several hundred kb, you can download tens of thousands of books in the time it takes to download one brain-numbing movie from Hollywood. I hate to make a plug for Amazon, but there are tons of books available for free, which you can read on the Kindle Cloud reader. Many, MANY more books available at one dollar. For prices less than ten dollars each, there are more books than any person can read in a lifetime.

    Cost doesn't prevent you reading. Several other factors, in some combination, can prevent anyone from reading. Lack of motivation, illiteracy, ignorance, or, as TFA suggests, to much time wasted on frivolities, such as social media.

  • (Score: 3, Informative) by driverless on Monday August 19 2019, @03:54AM (5 children)

    by driverless (4770) on Monday August 19 2019, @03:54AM (#881956)

    I don't do social media, so I'd be reading zero extra books.

    It's giving up wanking [youtube.com] that would be the real time gain.

    • (Score: 3, Funny) by ilPapa on Monday August 19 2019, @04:07AM (3 children)

      by ilPapa (2366) on Monday August 19 2019, @04:07AM (#881964) Journal

      It's giving up wanking [youtube.com] that would be the real time gain.

      Yes, but those 4 minutes times a day only adds up to about a half-hour. That's barely long enough to read the latest Barney Google & Snuffy Smith.

      --
      You are still welcome on my lawn.
      • (Score: 3, Funny) by ilPapa on Monday August 19 2019, @04:10AM

        by ilPapa (2366) on Monday August 19 2019, @04:10AM (#881965) Journal

        That was meant to read "4 minutes 8 times a day". I stepped all over my own joke. I apologize to the class.

        --
        You are still welcome on my lawn.
      • (Score: 3, Funny) by driverless on Monday August 19 2019, @04:12AM (1 child)

        by driverless (4770) on Monday August 19 2019, @04:12AM (#881966)

        Well I don't know about you but I turn to the Farmer's Almanac when I want, uh, inspiration.

        • (Score: 4, Funny) by ilPapa on Monday August 19 2019, @12:06PM

          by ilPapa (2366) on Monday August 19 2019, @12:06PM (#882070) Journal

          Sears Roebuck Catalog is hot.

          --
          You are still welcome on my lawn.
    • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday August 19 2019, @05:00AM

      I'd say I'm right there with you but for the connotations that would give your second sentence. I already read all the books I have the attention span for though, so giving up training for the Wanklympics would be pointless.

      --
      My rights don't end where your fear begins.
  • (Score: 3, Informative) by SomeGuy on Monday August 19 2019, @03:54AM

    by SomeGuy (5632) on Monday August 19 2019, @03:54AM (#881957)

    Have you tried the public library?

    How about a thrift store, or flea market? Or perhaps borrowing books from friends?

    I know, I know, it's not on a cell phone so it is somehow unthinkable.

  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by c0lo on Monday August 19 2019, @04:04AM (6 children)

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Monday August 19 2019, @04:04AM (#881961) Journal

    Seeing that most books are ludicrously expensive, I'd read more if books were around $3-5 USD.

    Over 59000 free ebooks [gutenberg.org] and legally so. At one per day, it will take you 160+ years to finish them.
    If you don't like them for free, I think we should be able to arrange something for you to get the satisfaction of paying $3 for each book you read, deal?

    --
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
  • (Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Monday August 19 2019, @04:38AM (1 child)

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Monday August 19 2019, @04:38AM (#881978) Journal

    What, doesn't Sci-Hub or Library Genesis have a few million books for you to read?

    --
    [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
  • (Score: 3, Touché) by jb on Monday August 19 2019, @06:46AM

    by jb (338) on Monday August 19 2019, @06:46AM (#882013)

    Seeing that most books are ludicrously expensive, I'd read more if books were around $3-5 USD

    Many second-hand books (even in good condition) cost less than that.

    As an added bonus, most older books are far better written than anything published today.

  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by VLM on Monday August 19 2019, @01:44PM

    by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Monday August 19 2019, @01:44PM (#882113)

    Time value comes into play.

    For the sake of argument we'll take the high end of $5 and assume its a fiction novel that you can be permanently done with in ten hours. That's 50 cents per hour.

    Arguably that's cheaper than ten vending machine cans of corn syrup soda, more fun, and healthier.

    If you want an expensive hobby activity, taking my family to the public museum costs $96 (not a typo) and figure we get five hours of fun for four people that divides out to $4.80/hr cost of museum fun, which is about ten times as expensive as buying brand new books. Admittedly the museum probably is ten times cooler.

    Note when you're deciding if something is ludicrous expensive or not, figure it takes more than $2K/month to live in the USA, so on a 24x7 basis that's about $3/hr just to keep the lights on, even if all you do is silently meditate all day. Renting an R44 helicopter and CFI is just under $500/hr, now that is "ludicrously expensive" whereas something that costs a tenth the cost of "keeping the lights on" like buying books is really very cheap.

  • (Score: 2) by Freeman on Monday August 19 2019, @02:16PM

    by Freeman (732) on Monday August 19 2019, @02:16PM (#882125) Journal

    Project Gutenberg offers over 59,000 free eBooks.

    http://www.gutenberg.org/ [gutenberg.org]

    And if you can't be bothered to actually read it or want to listen to something interesting while you jog or whatever.

    Free public domain audiobooks

    Read by volunteers from around the world.

    https://librivox.org/ [librivox.org]

    --
    Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
  • (Score: 2) by Freeman on Monday August 19 2019, @02:18PM

    by Freeman (732) on Monday August 19 2019, @02:18PM (#882126) Journal

    Also, "Half-Price Books" https://www.hpb.com/ [hpb.com] I typically only buy new, if I can't find one at a discount and/or it's a new release for a series I'm reading.

    --
    Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"