I have a tendency to listen to audiobooks about a variety of subjects while I game, scroll, drive, and do other chores in the interest of maximizing my enjoyment time and my educational goals. I do feel as though I get a lot of pleasure from this action but also worry that I'm slowly eradicating my already finicky attention span.

> Reading a Book is probably better stil

Hot take: why? Why is reading _better_ than gaming?

From an "entertainment" point of view I very much doubt it. I see it as snobbish.

From "productivity" point of view, well games have never been a productive thing so why comparing apples to oranges?

From an "educational" point of view stuff doesn't differ much that from a productivity point of view.

Then again, if you have non productive time to slot where you can do anything, why are books the "superior" choice?

Context: Yes, I do play games, but I also read 9-10 books a year.

I think they offer very similar things. Games offer you the ability to interact, making the story at hand more your own. Books give you less information, allowing you to create the environment for yourself, but have a set story.

There are also games to teach you things (factorio definitely taught me a lot about planning, not to mention logic gates), just as books can.

The only advantage books have for me is that they don’t irradiate my eyes with as much blue light as a screen would late at night.

Reading can also be a lot less mentally involved for me.

Often I am Gaming, thinking I am relaxing, but I am actually using my brain intensely and getting kind of riled up. This is sometimes true for a really exciting or intense novel, but usually much less so.

Reading is less bad for your eyes? When I game it's usually on a console it's 2 to 3 meters from me eyes. When I read the book is 20cm and I know it's bad for my eyes because I find it hard to focus after I look up from the book :P

I'm not a doctor or such, but the argument I heard for that is that books don't have backlighting, so the surface brightness follows the general brightness in the vicinity, therefore looking at it continously does not strain the eyes as much as looking at a back-lit surface like a screen. (This is also frequently brought up as a benefit of e-ink displays over LCD/LED displays for reading.)

Set a timer for a tolerable interval, say 10 minutes. Every 10 minutes, let your eyes rest 1 minute. That "sticking" is an issue with muscle elasticity and rest is about the only thing you can do for it (its in the eye, massage and cold compress is hard).

Not to mention the bad ergonomics of reading a book compared to a monitor.

There is a clear stereotype of book readers needing glasses. That’s less of a stereotype for people who play games.

> less bad for your brain

I guess this is obvious? I don’t see how either would be bad for that.