Singapore Is Paying People to Put Down Their Phones and Read Books

ggeox about 1 hour ago 12 commentsRead Article on gadgetreview.com

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Discussion (12 Comments)Read Original on HackerNews

tombert•11 minutes ago

I read a lot, and I own a lot of physical books, but I almost never actually read physical books anymore. I'm one of the happy few that used my Kindle for more than a week after getting it as a gift.

I find that reading on an ereader is many times easier for me, primarily because I can make the text gigantic and I don't lose track of my place on the page nearly as often. I'm not dyslexic (I've been tested), but I do think that there's some issue with my brain where if the text is small I really can't follow it. On all my computers the text is gigantic and even then I will click and highlight text as I'm reading so don't lose place. I would love to be paid to read but I don't think I'd love to be paid to read physical books.

I remember my grandmother was wholly unconvinced that my Kindle was a different thing than an iPad or a Game Boy, and that it was not "real" reading, for whatever reason.

mulderc•3 minutes ago

One thing I do with my students is show them how to adjust text size and have them try out larger sizes. I think a surprisingly large number of people have never even attempted to change the text size on their devices and many can benefit from something different than the defaults.

kingstnap•18 minutes ago

The headline makes it seem more monetary than it actually is.

https://www.read.gov.sg/join-the-readsg-challenge

It seems like turning points into money is just a happens to exist sort of mechanic. Enough to write a headline that they are technically "paying you". The real mechanics are much more typical gamification. Like earning xp, streaks, leaderboards, limited edition goodies at events, prize draws, collective goals.

The strict money payout is S$0.02 per 15 minutes at most once a day. Obviously if you were doing this it would be more for the rest of the dopamine then hoping to buy a candy bar after like 50 days.

yipinwong•12 minutes ago

For me it's not the phone that's stopping me from reading books but my computer, on which I play games, and browse, and do private stuff.

Where I live, electricity price is so ridiculous, I leave my PC off for 3 to 5 hours a day.

You get bored after 5 minutes. This is the best time to open your book and read.

----

Same idea applies for the phone. Just leave it off.

wbobeirne•7 minutes ago

It's difficult to turn your phone off if you have a spouse or children or other dependents who you can't drop communication with for hours at a time. But it's helpful to strip it down to the essentials so it doesn't double as an entertainment device.

andsoitis•17 minutes ago

Reading is fundamental.

aduwah•10 minutes ago

You being downvoted is just sad

andsoitis•9 minutes ago

The library is open.

itake•about 1 hour ago

Singapore libraries are really annoying for foreigners because they don’t let you use the WiFi.

Thailand at least gives you a 1 hour pass.

Not that anyone asked but my ranking of public libraries in Asia

1/ Taiwan

2/ HK

3/ Thailand

4/ Laos (private libraries are cute, but hot…)

4/ Vietnam (Bring your passport!)

5/ Singapore

I haven’t been to a library in Japan or S Korea. I tried working from a community center in Japan but I couldn’t figure how it works.

Onavo•8 minutes ago

It's not limited to their libraries. All of their public facilities are like this. Even their public swimming pools (not allowed to use them if you are a visitor, their digital ticketing system requires the local equivalent of a SSN). The official excuse is that it's tax payer subsidized. It's very much a classist country where you position in society is determined by your immigration status. Everything there is tiered based on whether you are a "citizen" (first class), permanent resident (second class), and you are in a permanent out group if you are not in the above two classes. And if you are a foreigner, whether you are a white "expat" or a Dubai -style indenture servant migrant worker.

graemep•2 minutes ago

To be fair there are professional people from many other countries so its not whether you are white or not, its your skill level. Classist, maybe, but not racist.

analog8374•36 minutes ago

They should be paying them to meditate. That would be the more healthful and revolutionary course.

Regular daily intellectual concentration is much the same be it game, book or reddit. And it makes you crazy. You withdraw from reality.