rachelautumn (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rachelautumn) wrote2015-06-23 12:01 pm
rachelautumn) wrote2015-06-23 12:01 pm
Entry tags:
Brain Retrain (smart phone made me dumb)
I can read again! That's in no small part due to some kind words from Brunettepett and Rotrude. It could be you all are accustomed to Making a Difference, one life at a time etc. but I thought you should know that it really mattered to me.
A little human reassurance helped me see that my smartphone made me dumb
I realised that reading on the phone had trained me to interrupt myself. Since life also interrupts me all the time, I had actually trained my brain to jerk away from the text constantly. If you add in that I was a submerssive reader rather than a factual reader, it meant I could never get in deep enough to have a good wallow.
I actually changed the media policy for my entire family after this revelation. No kidding. And -after a little teeth gnashing- the kids immediately became happier. So thanks again.
I'm happy to submerge up to my hippopotomous eyeballs in a story again without seeing the dreaded "bath mat" call to reality.
"Bath mat" comes from a wonderful book by Margaret Mahy (That's a rec) The Changeover. It's adolescent fantasy about a girl who becomes a witch in order to save her brother. The best, most enviable part of it is how the real world shifts seamlessly into the fantastical. She knows a guy at school is a wizard and finally asks for his help on that assumption without ever going to a library or receiving a prophesy or meeting a pixie. She just recognizes him. And she's right. (I have a weakness for symobolists, OK. No laughing.) When it's her turn to become magical, to make the "Changeover" of the title, it's very important that she not jerk out of the ritual reality. There's one terrible moment when she stops seeing magic and starts looking at the every day, ordinary bathroom floor.
That's the "bath mat" moment.
A little human reassurance helped me see that my smartphone made me dumb
I realised that reading on the phone had trained me to interrupt myself. Since life also interrupts me all the time, I had actually trained my brain to jerk away from the text constantly. If you add in that I was a submerssive reader rather than a factual reader, it meant I could never get in deep enough to have a good wallow.
I actually changed the media policy for my entire family after this revelation. No kidding. And -after a little teeth gnashing- the kids immediately became happier. So thanks again.
I'm happy to submerge up to my hippopotomous eyeballs in a story again without seeing the dreaded "bath mat" call to reality.
"Bath mat" comes from a wonderful book by Margaret Mahy (That's a rec) The Changeover. It's adolescent fantasy about a girl who becomes a witch in order to save her brother. The best, most enviable part of it is how the real world shifts seamlessly into the fantastical. She knows a guy at school is a wizard and finally asks for his help on that assumption without ever going to a library or receiving a prophesy or meeting a pixie. She just recognizes him. And she's right. (I have a weakness for symobolists, OK. No laughing.) When it's her turn to become magical, to make the "Changeover" of the title, it's very important that she not jerk out of the ritual reality. There's one terrible moment when she stops seeing magic and starts looking at the every day, ordinary bathroom floor.
That's the "bath mat" moment.