A plea to read without phones
Author Boze Herrington argued on X that the future depends on people relearning how to spend an unbroken hour or two reading without checking their phones, a post that struck a chord online. (x.com) The reaction shows a wider appetite for rescuing deep reading from constant digital interruption — useful if you’re trying to build longer, distraction‑free reading sessions. (x.com)
A writer named Boze Herrington set off a small online stampede when he argued that the future depends on people recovering the ability to read for one or two uninterrupted hours without checking a phone. Herrington is a novelist and essayist whose work has appeared in outlets including the Guardian, the Atlantic, Lit Hub, and Nerdist. (plough.com) The reason the post landed is simple: uninterrupted reading now feels unusual enough to sound almost radical. In a 2023 Pew Research Center survey, U.S. teens said platforms like YouTube, TikTok, Snapchat, and Instagram were part of daily life, and some described their social media use as “almost constant.” (pewresearch.org) For younger readers, the phone is not just nearby; it is noisy all day. Common Sense Media reported in 2023 that more than half of teens received 237 or more notifications a day, and nearly a quarter got 500 or more. (commonsensemedia.org) That constant tapping at attention shows up in reading research. A 2025 meta-analysis in Frontiers in Psychology reviewed 32 studies and found that attentional interference in digital reading environments had a negative effect on reading comprehension. (frontiersin.org) Even a silent phone can pull on the mind like an unfinished thought. A 2023 study in Scientific Reports found that the mere presence of a smartphone lowered performance on concentration and attention tasks for adults ages 20 to 34. (nature.com) The device you read on can matter too. A 2022 Scientific Reports study with 34 adults found that reading on a smartphone, compared with paper, was linked to reduced comprehension and higher prefrontal brain activity. (nature.com) Researchers who study reading have been warning about this shift for years. Scholar Maryanne Wolf’s 2018 book *Reader, Come Home* focused on how dependence on digital technologies can erode the slower forms of reading tied to reflection, empathy, and critical thought. (maryannewolf.com) That is why Herrington’s plea was bigger than one viral post. It put a plain sentence on a growing frustration: many people do not think they hate books, they think they have lost the conditions that let books work on them. (x.com) The practical answer is less glamorous than any app. Put the phone in another room, use paper if you can, and protect a first block of 20 or 30 minutes until your brain can handle 60 or 120 again; the research points in one direction, which is fewer interruptions and longer stretches. (nature.com) (frontiersin.org)
