★★★☆☆
I was reminded of Stolen Focus when admiring an artist friend’s ability to focus deeply while creating. This skill is increasingly rare in a society that has conditioned us all to believe we have to constantly multitask in order to be successful, valuable, or productive.
In Stolen Focus, Hari delves into the factors making us all feel so overwhelmed and distracted. He cites research and shares his own experience of struggling to pay attention to explain this recent societal phenomenon.
“We are being pushed at all times to pay attention to nonsense,” Hari notes, arguing this barrage of advertising, social media notifications, online messages, etc., is destroying our collective ability to think deeply and solve bigger issues like climate change. He also believes the proliferation of narcissism in modern society is the result of a “corruption of attention.”
I read this book as part of my job responsibilities at a college. One of the facts I found so stunning was the research it quoted about the average college student feeling unable to focus for more than 19 seconds. How can you make it through college-level work without being able to focus for more than a third of a minute?
As interesting as the book was, I felt conflicted about some of the contents, which is why it has taken me since last spring to review it. On the one hand, the book made me think, which I have always appreciated. Some parts validated some of my own experiences and explained why an individual’s inability to focus isn’t because they lack willpower or discipline. However, there were a couple of chapters that could be invalidating and damaging to anyone diagnosed with ADHD or who has taken medication for any type of neurodivergence. I don’t agree with the author’s views in those chapters and thought it was unnecessary for those judgments to be included in the book.
As a side note, the book did help me build my vocabulary, introducing me to new words like vituperative and detumescence. I can’t say that either of these words will be rolling off my tongue anytime soon, but I do now know what they mean!