I love to read but feel like I have to pretty much be in peak mental condition to fully appreciate a novel, which is pretty rarely. Meanwhile I will waste hours on reddit no matter how tired, sick, or sad I am. I wonder why because they’re both reading. Maybe because looking at reddit is more skimming? It does feel like the brain processes it differently. I wonder if other people here feel the same.
I feel the same quite often. And I guess, as many people say, part of is that reading requires you to keep your attention all the time, while going through reddit just does not.
But a big part for me is, when I’m tired I don’t want to get emotionally invested in something. And a proper book certainly requires that. I just don’t have enough bandwidth left to read something I’m actually interested in. With reddit, even if I’m reading some high drama post, I don’t get invested in it. I finish and skip to the next. So it is easier.