NormalTownLeader

joined 1 year ago
[–] NormalTownLeader@mander.xyz 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Never really got into TikTok myself, always just seemed like a worse version of Vine. But I'm also not the target demographic so there's that.

[–] NormalTownLeader@mander.xyz 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Hah, fair enough. I was using that more as the generic "go do something that's not just reading Reddit posts on a computer all day". But I have also been hiking!

 

Exactly what the title says. I used to look at Reddit and spend 2+ hours minimum every single day, more on the weekends. Once the API changes were announced and the protest date hit, I decided I would stop using it regardless of what happened moving forward.

I made a lemmy account and I do enjoy posting and reading occasionally, but I don't sink nearly as much time into it as I did with Reddit. After the first couple days where I really had to fight not to look at Reddit (guess it was addictive for me), I started doing other things in my free time to alleviate my boredom. I have read two books, and am starting on another book tomorrow. I have started work on personal projects I put on the back burner and have been making some genuine progress.

I was never a mod, but I feel kind of pathetic admitting this because it's such a meme that Reddit mods/admins haven't seen the sunlight for years. Guess my life was also passing me more than I realized. I don't really have a moral/point here because I know not everyone has as much of an addictive personality as I do, guess I just felt like sharing.

 

I can't recall which exact thread it was, but I was reading a book recommendation thread and the book "A Year in the Life Of Ancient Greece" by Philip Matyszak was recommended. I enjoyed learning about ancient Greece in the past and this seemed manageable (under 300 pages), so I read it over the course of this last week.

I really liked it! I normally enjoy fantasy/sci-fi, so while I knew I liked ancient Greece I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this historical fiction. It basically told the story of various ancient Greek lives over the course of nine months up to the Olympics, each person with a different life/livelihood accurate to ancient Greece. Following the Builder and the Farmer were likely my favorite parts.

 

I wanted to quickly plug one of my favorite YouTube channels for quick summaries of mythology. OSP does make adjustments for entertainment purposes, but generally does a pretty good job representing various myths, folklore, and origins of such in digestible chunks.

[–] NormalTownLeader@mander.xyz 1 points 1 year ago

While I can't speak to the mental health mentioned in this post, I used to read all the time, but by the time high school years hit that dwindled and I could barely read a chapter without wanting to do something else. I think that social media really took a toll on my attention span (though I can't prove that).

What helped me was making a book club with some friends of mine! When I had a deadline in place where if I didn't finish chapters at a set time (otherwise I wouldn't be able to properly have a conversation about it with them) that really helped motivate me. This also had the added benefit of exposing me to books I wouldn't normally read (this is how I was introduced to House of Leaves). I still don't dive deep into a book as easily as I used to, but it has been improving and like anything else just generally comes with practice.