Shaikh Afnan Birahim

12/03/2026

Digital platforms are changing how we read.
Instead of long immersion in a single text, we increasingly move through feeds—scrolling across fragments competing for attention.

In such an environment, deep reading becomes both harder and more important.

Do you think deep reading can survive in a culture dominated by feeds and endless scrolling?

20/02/2026

I’m pleased to share that my paper “The Afnan Equilibrium: A Coupled Welfare Model for Balancing Technology, Resilience, and Externalities” has been published in Ecological Economics.

The paper introduces a formal framework for balancing technological progress, systemic resilience, and environmental externalities within a unified welfare model. It derives an interior equilibrium and shows how simple policy instruments can align innovation with sustainability.

Open access (CC BY):
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2026.108948

17/02/2026

We don’t struggle to finish books because we’re less intelligent.

We struggle because our attention has been restructured.

In an age of feeds, summaries, and constant interruption, deep reading now feels effortful — and we quietly blame ourselves for it.

But what if it isn’t personal failure…
What if it’s structural transformation?

My new essay explores why finishing a book today feels like an accomplishment — and what that says about the digital age.

Read here:
https://shaikhafnanbirahim.substack.com/p/why-we-feel-guilty-for-not-finishing

If it resonates, subscribe to receive future essays on attention, media, and culture.

There was a time when finishing a book felt ordinary.

03/02/2026

We still read texts — but we no longer read.

We scroll, skim, summarize, recognize.
But sustained, immersive reading is quietly disappearing.

I explore this shift through Postliterary Attention Theory (PLAT) — why deep reading is no longer automatic, how simulreading replaces encounter, and what it means for thinking itself.

📖 Read the essay on Medium:
👉 https://medium.com/.iatb1/we-still-read-texts-but-we-no-longer-read-84dd2050d712

If this resonates, the full framework is developed in my book Postliterary Attention Theory: Reading, Fragmentation, and Meaning in the Digital Age.

Toward a Postliterary Attention Theory