Less Reading More Tiktok

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 02:35:33 -0400

I’m in a bit of a reading slump and have been for almost a month. It’s not unusual, I’ve talked about it a few times before, as I do tend to go through these from time to time.

This time I seem to be conducting a little self reflection experiment. As I find myself less and less interested in reading, I find myself spending more time taking in shortform content on TikTok and YouTube Shorts. Obviously, this is horrible. Replacing reading with mind-numbing, mind-rotting, TikTok is not conducive to good mental health or productivity.

Now, I’ve quit TikTok before. That obviously didn’t last long. I know people knock it, and rightfully so, but there are quite a few content creators on there that do provide some value (entertainment value at least), and I found that I missed their content while I was a way. It drove me back, and I got pulled back into the algorithm again. I know that short form content is bad for me. I’m very prone to attention span degradation. The more short form content I consume, the worse my attention span gets. I can not only see it in my work and motivation to do things, but I can also feel my attention span rotting away in my brain. It’s a disconcerting feeling to be sure.

What I didn’t realize, and what I should have known, is that there is a direct correlation between my reading and the amount of time I spend on TikTok. The more time I spend on the shit app, the less time I spend reading. Seems obvious, but it didn’t feel that way until this time when I got to thinking about how unmotivated I’ve been to even search out my next book.

Because this reading slump is different than the rest. It’s not caused by my being stuck on a good or bad book. This time, I’m simply being a lazy mofo. It doesn’t feel like I can dedicate myself to a book right now, and anytime I try to find something to read it all just seems so repetitive or uninteresting. Not even a reread has been able to catch my interest lately. And that means that I just spend more time consuming mostly shit content on the internet, despite knowing it’s bad for me.

I think I’m going to need to force myself to pick up a book, even if I find it uninteresting. I have to stop the momentum or I’ll just live on TikTok during my reading hours, and I can’t have that.

I should also quit TikTok again. And Instagram. And YouTube Shorts. I really should. Getting away from it would be good for me in so many ways. In fact, I’ll delete it now (I did in fact go do that. Instagram is gone too). Some mid-blog good habits being formed, y’all, how ‘bout that?

With that done, if I can hold that line, I need to get myself back into reading. I feel better when I read. It is just as simple as that. So, tomorrow (it’s 3AM now), I’ll find my next novel. I might even go back to writing about the things I read. Because my reading hasn’t been the only thing to slide off the rails. My blogging hasn’t been as consistent either.

TikTok really does ruin everything. It’s time to hop off that train again.

Tiktok on Matt's Blog

Less Reading More Tiktok