Monday, September 26, 2022
In Stolen Focus, Johann Hari references an interesting fact about the human brain – it hasn’t changed much in the last 40,000 years. But information and technology have accelerated and outstripped the brain’s capacity to handle it all. We have lost our ability to focus for sustained periods. There is compelling evidence between lack of sustained focus and obesity rates, anxiety, and depression. In other words, our devices and our technology may be distracting humanity into a crisis.
Anything that requires uninterrupted focus – reading a book, creating art or music, or mountain-climbing are in steep decline. Big tech and social media are focused on one thing: your attention. There’s no app that actually makes it easy for us to put down the phone and to be together, face to face. The business model of social media is to line the pockets of those who create it, not to create a helpful product. A helpful product would bring us together, not keep us on our devices!
Studies show that creativity and mood flourish when the mind can simply wander with no distractions. Your brain does its best work when it can sustain deep focus. So why not focus on something meaningful (a good book, a deep, in-person conversation, a creative project, or meditation)? Is your phone really that important? A compulsive “need” to check a notification or to waste time on YouTube is exactly what the algorithms are designed to do, to lull you in with a steady fix of virtual cocaine. Sustained engagement with each other, with nature, or with doing “nothing” is a lost necessity. We’re still human beings. We haven’t evolved fast enough to keep up with all of this compulsive scrolling, dings, and notifications. Put down the phone. Let’s return to deep, uninterrupted focus, and to allow our brains to flourish as they were designed to!