Stolen Focus: Why You Can't Pay Attention--And How to Think Deeply Again

While preparing for his digital detox, Hari had trouble finding a phone that could not connect to the internet. He eventually bought a Jitterbug, which is designed for seniors and has a built-in medical emergency button. With this phone, Hari could be reachable by a small handful of close friends and family in an emergency. Hari left his smartphone and computer at a friend’s house. Approaching Provincetown, the place where he would detox, Hari thought about how burnt out he felt from his busy writing career. He remembered using a cell phone and email for the first time as a young man, feeling how absurd it was that he now wanted to escape from technologies that he once didn’t care about at all.

In his new apartment, Hari was shocked by the slow pace of life without his devices. Most digital means of communication, like Twitter, encourage quick responses and create a sense of urgency, while spending time in nature slows down time and reduces one’s self-centeredness. Hari adjusted to a different daily rhythm: for example, reading a physical newspaper instead of online news. Constantly following the news online had made him anxious, but reading a newspaper decreased his anxiety.

To answer the question “is our collective attention span really shrinking?” (30), Researcher Sune Lehmann analyzed web data such as Twitter conversations, Reddit threads, movie ticket sales, and Google Books topics. With the exception of Wikipedia, each data set revealed a similar pattern of topics quickly peaking and then receding from users’ attention. Lehmann compares the rapid dissemination of information online to a powerful fire hose. While this speed and connectivity feel good in the short term, they lead to intellectual exhaustion, and entice people into multitasking superficially instead of achieving deep understanding. Other studies show that the quicker people accomplish cognitive tasks—for example, by speed reading—the less they remember and comprehend the material later.

Hari’s device-free life feels significantly slower; the rapid-fire nature of his previous experiences left him with “mental jet lag” (35). Society values efficiency—tech companies in particular brag about their speed—but learning expert Guy Claxton has found that slow activities like tai chi and yoga help people build attention by schooling them in focus. When Hari attends yoga class, he initially finds it “boring” (37), but soon finds that it allows him to slow down his thinking.

MIT neuroscientist Earl Miller contends that humans are inherently “single-minded” (37), or incapable of multitasking; when one tries to simultaneously do several things, one is merely rapidly switching their attention. This is detrimental to the quality of one’s concentration, which researchers call the “switch cost effect” (38): It takes time to refocus on each task, resulting in lost time. Studies have shown that being interrupted by texts and emails decreases people’s IQs and increases human error. Miller also argues that people who are frequently switching their attention from task to task have less brain processing time for free thinking, in which their brains can reflect on new information. This results in a decline in creativity. To remedy this, Miller recommends that people retrain their brains to focus by “monotasking” (43), or only working on one thing, for a 10-minute period, and add time as needed.

University of California neuroscientist Adam Gazzaley compares the brain’s inherent filtration system to a bouncer at a club. People’s brains must tune out irrelevant stimuli to improve concentration. As the world becomes more stimulating, this part of the brain must work harder to tune out distractions.

Hari concludes his first chapter by revealing that while his first couple weeks of “digital detox” were relaxing, he soon felt distress.

People’s attention spans are also decreasing because of their diminished access to a “flow state” (46).

After two weeks of his digital detox, Hari becomes increasingly distressed that he cannot use his phone. He begins his summer reading, but instead of enjoying the prose, he scans quickly for information with a “manic and extractive” mindset (47). Hari also feels that people around him are largely self-centered, and calls narcissism a “corruption of attention” (48), blaming social media for encouraging this mindset. Hari sees how different it is to connect with strangers in person, and how accustomed he is to online conversation and etiquette.

Hari delves into the research of psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Csikszentmihalyi survived WWII as a child in Italy, and then lived in a refugee camp for several years with his family. Due to this traumatic experience, Csikszentmihalyi doubted conventional knowledge, so he dropped out of school. A lecture by Carl Jung inspired his interest in psychology. Looking for positive aspects of human cognition, Csikszentmihalyi studied artists and found that most were unmotivated by validation or money; rather, they made art to experience the process of creating. Moreover, they were capable of intense focus in which they did not feel the passage of time. Csikszentmihalyi found this same intense focus, which he called a “flow state” (55), in pursuers of other disciplines, such as rock climbers, swimmers, and chess players. Most people experience flow by concentrating on something difficult, with a meaningful and specific goal.

Psychology is a two-pronged discipline: Some psychologists study mental illness, while those like Csikszentmihalyi “focus on the things that make life worth living” (57). Csikszentmihalyi insists that psychologists should help people identify positive goals, rather than only addressing what people feel is wrong.

Csikszentmihalyi’s research makes Hari realize that he is missing out on an important part of life. Seeking a flow state, Hari begins writing a novel. Over time, Hari finds it easier to focus; by entering a flow state earlier in the day he is more relaxed and happy later on. Hari realizes that eliminating distractions is only helpful when people have positive goals to replace them with. Hari argues that people must choose between “fragmentation” or “flow” (62).