We have lost our ability to pay attention

Hi, what's your attention span these days?

I recently read an interesting book by Johann Hari titled "Stolen Focus: Why You Can't Pay Attention - And How To Think Again."

Did you know that teenagers in the US can focus on one task for only 65 seconds at a time? And that it isn't much better for office workers: they can average only 3 minutes?

Our ability to pay attention is crumbling.

You might have noticed this for yourself. When was the last time you spent a couple of uninterrupted hours focused on one task? When was the last time you were in a flow state where you felt completely absorbed in something and time just flew by?

If you're like most of us, then these times of focus have become a rarity.

This lack of focus is certainly a problem for us at the individual level.

It's become harder to do things that require deep focus, like reading a book, having deep conversations, and thinking strategically and creatively. We can still do them, but they are getting harder.

It can also have big implications for our society as a whole.

Here are some quotes from the book that drove this point home for me:

“What we are sacrificing is depth in all sorts of dimensions…. Depth takes time. And depth takes reflection. If you have to keep up with everything and send emails all the time, there’s no time to reach depth. Depth connected to your work in relationships also takes time. It takes energy. It takes long time spans. And it takes commitment. It takes attention, right? All of these things that require depth are suffering. It’s pulling us more and more up onto the surface.”

“I don't think it's a coincidence that this crisis in paying attention has taken place at the same time as the worst crisis of democracy since the 1930s. People who can't focus will be more drawn to simplistic authoritarian solutions--and less likely to see clearly when they fail. A world full of attention-deprived citizens alternating between Twitter and Snapchat will be a world of cascading crises where we can't get a handle on any of them.”

“Democracy requires the ability of a population to pay attention long enough to identify real problems, distinguish them from fantasies, come up with solutions, and hold their leaders accountable if they fail to deliver them.”

So what can we do about it?

The author suggests a number of remedies at the individual level as well as at the societal level.

Here are steps you can take to improve your own attention span (with links to past blog posts of mine on that topic so you can dive deeper if you want):

1. Get more sleep (read blog)
2. Stop multitasking (read blog)
3. Take breaks from your electronic devices (read blog)
4. Let your mind wander
5. Engage in deliberately slow practices, like yoga, tai chi, or meditation (read blog)

On a societal level, he suggests three big, bold goals to reclaim our attention. You can read more about them in his book if you're curious:

1. Ban surveillance capitalism (e.g. the current business model of Facebook, Google, etc)
2. Introduce a four-day work week
3. Rebuild childhood around letting kids play freely

What are your thoughts on this topic?

Best,

Christine

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