Your attention didn’t collapse. It was stolen by Johann Hari
let me tell you, i could barely make it through this paragraph, but this shit is important
Another part of the article that really grabbed me:
“At the moment it’s as though we are all having itching powder poured over us all day, and the people pouring the powder are saying: ‘You might want to learn to meditate. Then you wouldn’t scratch so much.’”
This post is about why you're scrolling past
“I learned that the factors harming our attention are not all immediately obvious. I had been focused on tech at first, but in fact the causes range very widely – from the food we eat to the air we breathe, from the hours we work to the hours we no longer sleep. They include many things we have come to take for granted – from how we deprive our children of play, to how our schools strip learning of meaning by basing everything on tests.
“... To give one example: there is strong scientific evidence that stress and exhaustion ruin your attention. Today, about 35% of workers feel they can never switch off their phones because their boss might email them at any time of day or night. In France, ordinary workers decided this was intolerable and pressured their government for change – so now, they have a legal “right to disconnect”. It’s simple. You have a right to defined work hours, and you have a right to not be contacted by your employer outside those hours. Companies that break the rules get huge fines. There are lots of potential collective changes like this that can restore part of our focus.
“... But none of these changes will happen unless we fight for them.”
