“I wondered if the motto for our era should be: I tried to live but I got distracted.”
I truly believe this is one of the most important books of our time, and ever since hearing him on Ezra Klein’s podcast, Johann Hari’s reporting and analysis of our attention crisis has greatly influenced me. In Stolen Focus, Hari does not hold back on showing readers all the serious ways in which our attention crisis has been (literally) manufactured, forced upon us, and profoundly changed us as individuals and as a society.
Hari’s reporting lays bare the damage the internet, social media, outrage culture, surveillance capitalism, overworking, sleep deprivation, pollution, poor diet and nutrition, stress, and confinement has done to all of us with such clarity and conviction that most readers will feel compelled to take action and regain some level of control over what we have lost.
Despite, Hari’s clear condemnation and disgust, he is careful not to vilify or come across preachy or morally superior. In addition to making it clear that individual action can only go so far in an ecosystem designed to distract and exhaust us, Hari also does not overly demonize the industries at fault. Rather, Hari presents consumer and designer alike as (for the most part) co-victims of overwhelmingly powerful economic incentives, psychological vulnerabilities, and the dizzying pace of technological acceleration. This approach makes it clear that even within companies like Google, there are good actors, and that emerging from this crisis will require a broad coalition that is focused not on reversing technological advancements, but on changing incentive structures. That said, when appropriate, Hari does not hold back on shining a spotlight on the dark confessions of the mad scientists at Facebook and Apple who knowingly brought monsters into our world.
Until the day of structural change comes, Hari offers a number of individual actions we all can take, any combination of which will require personal discipline and persistence in order to reclaim some degree of deep focus. These actions include (1) pre-commitment (taking active steps to make it harder to break concentration by “switching” between tasks), (2) actively seeking out “flow” and meaningful activity rather than engaging in self reproach, (3) taking extended and enforced breaks from social media, (4) mind wandering without distraction, (5) getting proper and adequate sleep, and (6) allowing children (and yourself) to have free, unstructured “play” time to boost creativity and problem-solving.
I strongly recommend Stolen Focus to any person living in a modern Western society. For a book about technology and psychology, it has an immense power to entertain, intrigue, terrify, frustrate, and ultimately provide hope. If you are willing to receive it, this book will change your relationship with your devices, yourself, and the world around you. And we will all be better for it.
The Once and Future Lit 