Throughout the beginning of “Stolen Focus,” by Johann Hari, I was constantly feeling threatened.
Not verbally or physically, but over my habits.
I, like many college students, am glued to some form of the internet and technology. Even now, as I am writing this.
My assignments are done through Canvas, I use audiobooks, digital note taking apps and basically every website known to mankind in order to study. It’s rare there is an opportunity to be without the internet.
Hari did it. Not just for a day or a week, but three months.
Early on, Hari noticed how there has been an increase in speed, switching and filtering going on.
What really struck me about this was his discussion of switching and how that can affect IQ.
When he brought up about how technological distraction knocked IQ down 10 points and it being worse than smoking cannabis, it made me wonder how that affected me in the past and how it affects me now.
I can recall the rules throughout middle and high school, even now in college, discussing how marijuana and smoking were ruining lungs and horrible for a person’s health.
But there’s no warning on phones, checking emails, or answering texts.
Even today, I tend to find myself, phone in hand when the opportunity to study is right in front of me.
I frequently find myself checking notifications at all times–– at the dorm, in class, even in meetings. I always justify it to myself, saying that my mom may need me and that it could be an emergency. Typically, it’s my friend sending me a photo of her cat.
I was also taken aback by Hari’s section about exhaustion, specifically how he compared his sleep routine with that of a tranquilized rhino.
His many alarms remind me of my list of alarms. Various classes, reminders, meetings. If it is a time-sensitive event, there is an alarm for it.
What I mean by ‘threatened’ is that the way of life as a college student is entirely what Hari is arguing against.
Late nights, constant devices, and distractions.
What really hit me though, was the striking realization of what I will recall on my deathbed in my final moments.
“When you’re approaching death, I thought, you won’t think about your reinforcements–-the likes and retweets— you’ll think about your moments of flow.”
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