Shaikh Afnan Birahim

24/08/2026

The first Bangladesh Time Capsule video is now live: This Was Dhaka 150 Years Ago.

Using archival photographs from the 1870s and early 1900s, the episode explores how Dhaka’s waterways, trade, infrastructure and institutions gradually helped shape the city we know today.

The Facebook video is shared here, and you can also watch and subscribe on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpraHUr90-8

If your parents or grandparents ever told you stories about Old Dhaka, or if you recognise something that still exists today, I’d love to hear about it in the comments.

09/08/2026

সকালবেলার বাসের ভিড়।
অফিসে পৌঁছেই কাজের চাপ।
মাস শেষে টাকার হিসাব।
বাড়ি থেকে মায়ের ফোন।
আর এসবের মাঝে টংয়ের এক কাপ চা।

নেহালের জীবন খুব অসাধারণ কিছু নয়।
হয়তো সে কারণেই খুব পরিচিত।

ঢাকায় একা থাকা এক তরুণ কর্মজীবী মানুষের প্রতিদিনের চাপ, ছোটো ছোটো স্বস্তির মুহুর্তগুলো, পরিবারের টান আর নীরবে টিকে থাকার গল্প নিয়ে
‘ঢাকায় দিনগুলো’।

আসছে শীঘ্রই।

06/08/2026

ঢাকায় দিনগুলো | Official Teaser #1

একটি শহর।
অসংখ্য মানুষ।
হাজারো অদেখা গল্প।

প্রতিদিনের ঢাকার ব্যস্ততা, ক্লান্তি, স্বপ্ন এবং ছোট ছোট মুহূর্তগুলো নিয়ে আসছে আমার বাংলা গ্রাফিক নভেল ‘ঢাকায় দিনগুলো’।

এর প্রথম অফিসিয়াল টিজার এখন প্রকাশিত।

🎬 দেখুন:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4eWwSFclfY

শিগগিরই প্রকাশিত হচ্ছে।

ঢাকা।একটি শহর।অসংখ্য মানুষের ব্যস্ততা, স্বপ্ন, ক্লান্তি আর ছোট ছো...

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?

05/03/2026

For most of the twentieth century, literature was filtered through critics, editors, and institutions.

Today, algorithms increasingly perform that role.

Recommendation feeds and engagement metrics shape what millions of people read.

I explore this transformation in a new essay on reading and digital culture.

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