"We've lost the ability to focus on words for long stretches of time . . . er, read books. Years of turning everything worth consuming into "content" that's been "optimized" for attention has turned our brains into mush, shoved our mental health into free fall, and reduced our ability to pay attention to anything for more than five seconds at a time."
"While we're still in the early days of what the long-term impact of artificial intelligence on our brains might look like, a growing contingent of folks are fighting back against the hijacking of our attention spans in favor of good old-fashioned reading. These are teenagers forgoing social media for social reality, working moms carving out time in their busy schedules to devour books, and people on #BookTok swapping tips to get into reading."
"In the spirit of celebrating the dying art of reading actual, honest-to-god chapter books-and not just furiously scrolling through endless Instagram slideshows and calling it a day- and before AI-written novels completely take over (this reality might already be upon us), I consulted a number of my colleagues at Fast Company to compile a list of the best books they've read this year in the hopes of inspiring you, too."
Nonstop doomscrolling and attention-optimized content have eroded sustained reading ability, shortened attention spans, and contributed to declining mental health. Many people are resisting by quitting or reducing social media use, carving out dedicated reading time, and sharing strategies on platforms like #BookTok. A renewed focus on chapter books aims to rebuild deep-focus habits before AI-written novels further saturate the landscape. Recommended reading includes You Dreamed of Empires, a hypnotic retelling of Moctezuma and Hernán Cortés set in Tenochtitlan across a single consequential day in 1519, notable for vivid city descriptions and palace intrigue.
Read at Fast Company
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]