All of Humanity’s Problems Come From Not Being Able to Sit Quietly Alone in a Room

In the foreword to Focus, it was fascinating that it cited Seneca’s insight — made two thousand years ago — that “information overload is the main cause of distraction.” In 18th-century Germany too, the so-called “plague of books” became a social concern, and there was worry that people would soon have trouble concentrating. So concern about the sheer volume of information isn’t new. But is this time different? Is modern attention being negatively affected by the sheer quantity of information and all the distraction?
First, this is worth saying: humanity has always been surrounded by too much information. Whether we’re walking outdoors or sitting at home, we’re always drowning in information — more than we can digest. The human brain can only process information in part; that’s a fundamental feature of it. The brain has to pick and choose, and this selection is called “attention.” What’s different from the past is that the competition to capture people’s attention has become immensely fiercer.
Attention is allocated only to one place at a time. That means, to deliver a message to someone, you first have to capture their attention. Today, unlike before, a huge number of people and companies are aware of this, and with smartphones, laptops, and tablets — devices people always keep close — it’s become much easier to grab attention far more effectively.

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I’m reminded of a line Blaise Pascal left behind: all of humanity’s problems come from not being able to sit quietly alone in a room.
What a wonderful line. A few years ago there was an experiment in which people were left alone in a room equipped with an electric-shock device. Within just 12 minutes of being alone, most subjects shocked themselves. The point of the experiment was that people would rather experience an intense stimulus than be alone with their thoughts.


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Sadly, given companies’ relentless pursuit of profit, that state of affairs isn’t likely to change any time soon. From a corporate standpoint, people’s attention is extremely lucrative. Under these conditions, it’s hard to shake the gloomy thought that attention spans keep shrinking and children’s minds are becoming more and more scrambled. How is the explosive increase in information volume and distraction affecting the brains of children and teenagers? I’m curious whether information overload and media saturation are affecting children’s concentration, and whether there is research on it.
It’s a hard question to answer because there isn’t much research yet. Most studies so far have dealt with correlations, and data confirms that students who engage heavily with social media have relatively lower academic performance. But this data could also be read the other way: students who already had concentration problems ended up using their phones more. Still — and I’m not exaggerating — I believe that whatever we learn in childhood, we tend to prefer as adults. For example, if you want to be good at tennis, the earlier you start, as your physical condition allows, the better.
The same principle applies to many cognitively demanding tasks. Reading, writing, giving presentations — there’s a reason we send children to school from a young age. Of course, kids aren’t exposed to much social media at that age, so I can’t cite a study right now proving that children who concentrate well early on have better attention as adults.

We have to consciously think about what to focus on. I sometimes talk with my kids about their interests — for instance, when they watch videos, ads often show up. “Is this an ad you’re actually interested in?” The fact that New Philosopher chose to devote an issue to distraction is a good sign. It’s a topic we absolutely need to discuss. In the end, the answer is attention. We need to build an environment where we can sustain attention for longer.