I’m reading the latest book by Johann Hari - it’s called Stolen Focus and it’s about how being chronically online is destroying our ability to focus.
I know, I know. For the longest time I’ve been a defender of social media. I spend a lot of time on Facebook because it’s where my friends are. Living with chronic illness, socialising in real life is exhausting when I’m even only mildly unwell. Don’t get me wrong - I love seeing people and it’s worth it - but there is a cost and I’m always aware of it.
I’m also old enough to remember how lonely it was in the olden days, when I was first ill, and Ryan was working long hours, and the only person I would see all day was the postman, and occasionally my neighbour from next door but one whose only interest was tidying up and home decor…
As my mind was already made up, there was no way I would ever read this book. Only, being chronically online and distracting myself by scrolling through twitter - when I saw a clip of an interview. And I was hooked…
Sadly, this demonstrates both sides of the argument - if I hadn’t been wasting time by scrolling through twitter I’d never have bought the book. But in this case the book has made me think a little more deeply about something which matters…. and taken even more of my time.
One of the aspects of this analysis I really appreciate is that Hari is open about which aspects of his argument there is a lot of evidence for, and which are more tentative. This helps to avoid the trap (which I associate with Malcolm Gladwell) of drawing too strong a conclusion based on weak evidence and speculation.
And the other major positive for me is that it’s not all focused on how weak we are as individuals and how we should just get a bit more self-discipline, but he also looks at the structural aspects of how social media is making money out of keeping us distracted and doom-scrolling, and in some cases (I’m thinking particularly of YouTube) radicalises us by serving up more and more extreme content.
One of the arguments that made a lot of sense to me is about just how much information is out there now, and how easily our brains can get overloaded as we struggle to keep up.
For me, this became apparent in the early stages of the pandemic, when for the first time I started to find it difficult to read.
Specifically, I’ve still not read The Mirror and the Light - the last of Mantel’s Wolf Hall trilogy.
I’m remembering all the jokes from that time about how so many of us became ‘experts’ in epidemiology and later in vaccination, and how many articles and scientific papers I read. And I realise it wasn’t that I couldn’t concentrate to read - it was more that my focus was grabbed by other issues. OK, it seemed quite important then, and probably was, but the same is not true of the other issues that have hijacked my attention over the years.
Did I really need to follow the US elections blow by blow - and then spend my time on a daily basis reading Trump’s tweets? Do I really need to stay up all night following our own elections? (Oh Lord, there’s gonna be another of those soon - at least, I hope it’s soon.)
I’m not arguing in favour of taking no interest in what’s going on in the world - far from it! - but it is a question of balance.
And there are other things I want to be doing with my limited energy.
To reframe that old cliche of a question (it’s usually about work), ‘On my deathbed, will I really wish I’d spent more time scrolling through twitter and arguing with strangers on Facebook or in the Guardian comments?’
So yes, it’s time for me to take action just to give myself more time to do the things I really want to do. To write my novel, to play with fabric and threads, maybe even to read the Mantel.
And while I agree with Hari that we need to change the world, to find some way of regulating social media so it works for our benefit and not just to enrich a few tech bros, for now, all I can do is find my own way to deal with the addiction, and use Facebook and Twitter in a more disciplined way.
Anyway, I am about half way through Hari’s book and I think it is a good use of my time to finish it - although there are elements which are properly dystopian there’s also a helping of hope that we can change things for the better.
While I am now about to get seriously stuck into writing my fourth novel - here is your reminder than my first is available on Amazon, including on Kindle Unlimited
LINK
And my third novel is also available on Amazon, and is beginning to get some excellent reviews!
LINK
Ann