“Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention”…

Johann Hari’s latest book, Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention—and How to Think Deeply Again, explains how our attention is being continuously degraded. Hari identifies 12 causes, only two of which relate to technology…

One big threat to our brains is our constant attempts to multitask… We can appear to multitask, but each time we switch our focus from one to another task, we need to re-focus, backtrack and correct errors. This causes a 10-point drop in our IQ - the same as we would have if we were stoned on cannabis.

Recent research shows that switching, switching, switching as we now do all day has a huge cost. The average office worker is interrupted about every 3 minutes. The average North American spends 40% of their work time “multitasking” and spends over 3 hours per day on their cell phones. They touch their cell phones an average of 2,617 times every 24 hours. 

Most office workers never have an uninterrupted hour at work. 

— eileenpease.com, Dynamic Learning 

I remember when I got my first smart phone (a Blackberry) at work, and it was very quickly called the “crackberry.” Not much has changed. Now it’s emails, text messages, photo’s, social media, the news, video’s, movies. There is seemingly no end to the fascination of our phones. I actually began to find to constant buzzing and dinging stressful, so I’ve silenced my phone unless I’m waiting for an urgent call or message. I’ve also turned most notifications off and I only surf my favourite sites when I have much needed downtime or time to kill. Actually, I was in Hawaii recently and chose to leave my phone in my room two days straight, while I was hanging out at the pool. You end up noticing what’s happening around you, chatting with people, day dreaming. I have to say, it was very relaxing and freeing. I’ve decided I need to spend a bit more time without the seeming urgency of what’s happening on my phone, Lol. Just sayin’ :) Hugs. XO

Blessings,

Chatgirl