Books Help Focus in Times of Distraction (video)

You’ve been probably reading Johann Hari’s article In The Age of Distraction, We Need One Thing More Than Ever: Books. It encouraged me to do something to reflect this idea as I truly agree with it. The outcome is a video you can watch below.

Books in the times of distraction – that’s what behind Ebook Friendly. I’ve founded the service at the beginning of the year to let Internet users calm down and focus on discovering and reading books.

Opposite to Johann Hari, I don’t think only paper book can bring salvation. In my opinion it’s any book, in any form. You can reach for a paperback or an enhanced ebook or an audiobook. Some better than the others, but they will all reduce this annoying feeling of distraction. You’re not in the endless abyss of the Internet any more, you’re in a fully formed world, following its story at the speed you choose.

You can say “yeah, but sometimes I’m distracted so deeply, that I can’t imagine myself reading a book.”

You’re right, I experience it every day. Among so many skills we learn to keep up with changes, we have to add one more – how to turn into a reading mood after a busy day full of multiple streams of information, smartphone rings, push notification beeps and nervous location check-ins.

It’s doable. This video will show you (I hope) in real-time how distracted – or how focused – you are at the moment.

I’ve started a special section at Ebook Friendly, where you can read more about Get Focused. Read Books campaign. It includes recommended books to read as well as articles on distraction. Any feedback is welcome as to what to do to make the campaign better and push it further.

You can easily become a partner (if you like the idea of course). Just embed the video on your blog and link to the campaign’s landing page. As soon as I’ll see the incoming link, I’ll include your blog on a list of partners.

The link to a landing page of the campaign is http://bit.ly/read_books

The number of people suffering from digital distractions will increase and it’s good to tell them that the best remedy is known since human kind started to read.