This great article by Hugh McGuire, even though it is nearly 10 years old, describes near perfectly my (and, as it seems, many others) relation to books in the age of endless dopamine hits coming from our beloved smartphones.
Dopamine
Hugh goes into detail how the number of books he read stagnated every year due to the constant need for dopamine given to him by his smartphone, be it mails or Twitter. This even lead to him checking his phone during a show his daughter was part of.
He pictures the situation in his words: “Spending time with friends, or family, I often feel a soul-deep throb coming from that perfectly engineered wafer of stainless steel and glass and rare earth metals in my pocket. Touch me. Look at me. You might find something marvellous.”
I can relate to this. I think nearly everybody owning a phone can relate to this. To overcome this constant need for dopamine, one has to be strong to hide all sources of it.
He describes a test with rats who had a lever which could release dopamine directly into their body. They chose the lever over sex or even eating, thus starving to death just because they got addicted to dopamine.
I don’t want to starve to death. I want to be able to focus on things for a longer amount of time without the need for dopamine in between. For example by reading a book.
Books
Hugh has the perfect words for books: “Books, in ways that are different to visual art, to music, to radio, to love even, force us to walk through another’s thoughts, one word at a time, over hours and days. We share our minds for that time with the writer’s. There is a slowness, a forced reflection required by the medium that is unique. Books recreate someone else’s thoughts inside our own minds, and maybe it is this one-to-one mapping of someone else’s words, on their own, without external stimuli, that give books their power. Books force us to let someone else’s thoughts inhabit our minds completely”.
I can relate to this. Reading biographies from great entrepreneurs like Steve Jobs lets you see the world through their eyes. But: You need to focus. Reading a book takes time. Making sense of the words requires you to read more than just five sentences a day.
Problem & Solution
Hugh identified the problem as follows:
- I cannot read books because my brain has been trained to want a constant hit of dopamine, which a digital interruption will provide
- This digital dopamine addiction means I have trouble focusing: on books, work, family and friends
I feel the same. Thus you need to take preconditions: Block time for reading. Don’t place your phone in your bedroom. Read every day before sleeping. Take a book (or e-book) with you to the doctor’s waiting room. And so on. But you need to be able to resist the temptation of dopamine from your phone.
Hugh’s writing has again showed me the importance of reading. Even though I read 7 books in 2024, this number should get higher in 2025.
Read Hugh’s article for yourself. It helps: https://hughmcguire.medium.com/why-can-t-we-read-anymore-503c38c131fe