Swipe

When I read the blurb for this book I thought that it sounded so much like me that I had to read it! I often don’t finish things because I am tempted by a new idea so I thought there could be some useful lessons here for me.

The book is very insightful and leads the reader through all the reasons we might swipe from one thing to another, and also looks at the different types of swiper and reasons behind why we swipe. There is also some psychology and a deeper look at what happens in the brain when we swipe, and what makes swiping a more attractive option than finishing something.

Like most books of this type, most of the content is taken up with the what and why, with the ‘how to fix it’ saved for the last chapter. However, dotted throughout the book are side boxes with information about how to stop swiping so you never feel like all the juicy stuff is kept until the end.

Reading this book will not automatically stop you from swiping - unfortunately, you have to do the work for that! But reading this book will help you understand why you behave as you do and steps you can take to recognise and then change that behaviour.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who suffers with not being able to finish what they start, who keeps being distracted or who suffer with ‘shiny object syndrome’. All these are learned habits that absolutely can be unlearned, with a fair bit of work and guidance from this book.

With thanks to Netgalley and Amplify Publishing for an advance review copy. All opinions are my own.

What attracted me most to the book was the title and after reading a few pages, I could easily relate to what was being pointed out and motivated me to embark on my own journey to reconsider my "Swipe" habits in order to live a fulfilling life and in the present but above all to learn how to push through the discomfort of swiping as a avoidance mechanism.

Swipe does an in-depth analysis on why we don't finish what we start. Sprinkled with interesting stories and psychological analysis, this book is useful for anyone wondering how to start, and finish, their next project. At first, I understood what 'Swipe' was, but as the chapters continued on, it became more ambiguous. Let me explain. 'Swipe' is coined in place of 'Pass', for example, he passed on this opportunity, she passed on this personal project once it got too hard, they passed on renting out a space for their wine bar because of the exorbitant costs. You get it now, right? So, anyway, 'Swipe' was clear at first, but then it started taking the place of other words as the chapters went on, therefore contributing to its ambiguity. That said, 'Swipe' is a well-researched book and phenomena overall in this high tech, low attention span world, where instantaneous results are preferred over the hard work finish line because no one likes being in the process when they prefer to be in the results. Definitely a good read for anyone on the verge of burnout, or in my case, on the verge of tears for not knowing what is the next step in a self imposed personal project. Despite the ambiguity of the coined term, I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in finishing what they started.

As a professor who leads several courses involving social media...and deals with students who are impacted by social media...SWIPE provides insightful and thoughtful reasoning and research into how social media impacts our lives and mental state. As we see with the current controversy about TikTok, social media's impact is all around us. I will recommend this title to my classes. @AmplifyPubGroup