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In the Time Spent on Social Media You Could Read 200 Books

In an article on Quartz, author Charles Chu claims, "In the time you spend on social media each year, you could read 200 books." Here's how the math behind that claim breaks down:

First, to read 200 books, simply spend 417 hours a year reading. If you're thinking, How can I possibly read for 417 hours? Chu writes:

417 hours. That sure feels like a lot. But what does 417 hours really mean? Let's try to get some more perspective. Here's how much time a single American spends on social media and TV in a year:
  • 608 hours on social media
  • 1642 hours on TV
Wow. That's 2250 hours a year spent on TRASH. If those hours were spent reading instead, you could be reading over 1,000 books a year!

Chu, who is not writing from a Christian perspective, offers some challenging words to all followers of Christ: "Here's the simple truth behind reading a lot of books [or the Bible]: It's not that hard. We have all the time we need. The scary part—the part we all ignore—is that we are too addicted, too weak, and too distracted to do what we all know is important"

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