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>> who has the time and the energy to read a long novel today?

> Anyone who has the time and energy to spend on YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter/X, or for that matter, anyone who has the time and energy to spend watching TV.

Most of those are passive entertainments, suitable for people who've been drained of the energy to do anything else.

by lapcat3 hours ago|

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I read while lying on the couch, my head resting on a pillow. Is that not passive enough?

by bluGill3 hours ago|

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You are good at reading so it is passive. Someone who doesn't read much is not good at it, and so no reading is passive. Get that person to read some more and eventually they get good and it can become passive, but for most it is not.

I could watch TV passively (I don't watch TV, but I could). However if you switched my TV for one that received only Spanish - I have enough Spanish that I could understand, but it wouldn't be passive for me, it would be hard work to understand.

by lapcat2 hours ago|

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> Someone who doesn't read much is not good at it, and so no reading is passive.

How did people get worse at reading, other than choosing to spend time on the alternative activities that I listed? You may be reversing cause and effect.

by palmotea3 hours ago|

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> I read while lying on the couch, my head resting on a pillow. Is that not passive enough?

Obviously I meant mentally passive, not physically passive.

by lapcat2 hours ago|

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I wouldn't call social media relaxing. After all, it's known as doomscrolling. I think reading is actually more relaxing. Social media is addictive, like a drug. Nobody calls cocaine relaxing.

by palmotea2 hours ago|

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> I wouldn't call social media relaxing.

Neither did I.

by lapcat2 hours ago|

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What exactly does "mentally passive" mean? I doubt cocaine is that either.

Anyway, I don't buy the "energy" story, that doomscrolling is somehow low-energy, or even that people can't muster the energy for any activity other than doomscrolling.