This morning, I was awakened by birds…well, the low humming of pigeons on my windowsill because I live in New York City. Nevertheless, it was astonishing that I was awakened by nature instead of my phone alarm or a blaring siren. I took advantage of this breadth of nature and seemingly beautiful weather, opened my window, and took a meditative inhale of the fresh morning air and decided to go for a walk. However, the second I left my apartment, I was greeted by screens of the daily news updates in the elevator and the declining Dow Jones scroller. Then, someone staring at their phone walked straight into me as I was crossing the street and I got immediately distracted by the marquee of The Daily Show announcing their newest guest. I proceeded to google that new guest on my phone and realized I had three unanswered texts, and completely forgot about the peaceful motivation of this morning’s nature walk.

My failed attempt at a peaceful morning walk was a clear example of the lack of focus and digital distraction our society is experiencing. After reading Johan Hari’s Stolen Focus, he points out that our collapsing ability to focus on one task is a result of trying to survive in a culture that is increasing in pace and only growing more accustomed to multitasking in a world full of screens and captivating technology. Hari says:

“The more information you pump in, the less people can focus on any individual piece of it” (Hari 32).

This accurately describes my lack of focus and ability to jump quickly back into my original intention of a peaceful walk in nature because I was innundated with so much additional distracting information. The ethereal mood I naturally awaked to was so quickly transitioned into a rush of distraction, responsibility, and stress in a matter of minutes.

20 years ago, I took a high school graduation trip to Iceland and visited the Blue Lagoon, a natural haven of Arctic scenery surrounding a geothermal pool. Ironically, Hari provided a disappointing anecdote of his recent experience at the same place. Although I have such fond memories of the natural beauty of the setting and relaxing hot spring, Hari described his experience as being surrounded by tourists with selfie sticks who were frantically posting on social media about “living their best life” instead of living their lives in the moment. I couldn’t help but juxtapose our two experiences and wonder how rapidly our culture has changed in the past 20 years. Have we gotten so addicted to our phones and obsessed with posting about our lives instead of actually living in the moment? Are we so far down the rabbit hole that we perhaps enjoy the act of posting on social media more than enjoying the actual experience?

My memory of one of nature’s beauties is at least protected in the pre-social media archive portion of my mind…perhaps that is why it’s so vivid and deeply embedded.

Citation:

Hari, Johann. Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention–and How to Think Deeply Again. Crown, 2023.