<div class="bbWrapper"><blockquote data-attributes="member: 115893" data-quote="Isaac Odongo" data-source="post: 1074291"
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I have a question.<br />
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I know I want to read more about dopamine and screen time things.<br />
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However, a quick one. My reading is over 90% on phone, when we talk of screen time, do we mean time spent on social scrolling and watching? Or is reading on phone or PC part of this screen time.<br />
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Besides, <a href="https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/members/107881/" class="username" data-xf-init="member-tooltip" data-user-id="107881" data-username="@heavy_industry">@heavy_industry</a> and <a href="https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/members/112340/" class="username" data-xf-init="member-tooltip" data-user-id="112340" data-username="@Matt Lee">@Matt Lee</a>, what books do you recommend I read to help me understand the workings of these things, because I have a variant of the same problem and I need to rewire my brain away from it.
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</blockquote><br />
Damn good question!<br />
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Here's the answer as far as I understand it.<br />
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The short and simple answer is, reading literature, or anything that requires you to concentrate, is fine to do so on a screen. Cognitively, it won't affect you in the same way as scrolling through social media will. Although, depending on the type and size of screen, you may be affecting your eyesight.<br />
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The slightly longer (and still simple) answer is, the difference between reading a book on a phone screen, and social media, is the effect on eye movement.<br />
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When you're scrolling, your eyes are tracking what's on screen, on top of that, you have flashing ads, moving gifs, animations, and short videos to contend with. All of these things trigger something called the orienting response (aka orienting reflex), whereby you are compelled to pay attention to sudden movement. Or more accurately, changes in your environment that are not sudden enough to trigger the startle response.<br />
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When experiencing the orienting response, you receive a small shot of adrenaline, and cortisol. Along with this you experience changes in brain chemistry and galvanic skin responses (micro sweating). This is why you can often feel tired, irritated, and stressed, after a long social media session.<br />
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So unless you're reading your books at super speed, you will be experiencing the exact opposite responses to social media, as you are staring at a very slowly changing environment.<br />
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Note for any cognitive behavioural scientists out there: I have grossly oversimplified the orienting response; however, I feel it's relevant when discussing social media scrolling.</div>
