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In the last decade or so Johann Hari has found a niche writing books about humanity's most pressing psychological problems. Chasing the Scream, his first, tackled the subject of addiction. Lost Connections investigated the root causes of depression. In his latest, Stolen Focus, Hari turns his attention to, well, attention — or, rather, the lack of it. Why can't people pay attention anymore? And what can be done about it?
The narrative hook of the book involves a three-month vacation Hari took to Provincetown, Massachusetts, where he went to great lengths to avoid the internet. He replaced his smartphone with an old phone that cannot do anything but make calls, and took a laptop too decrepit to go online. Initially, Hari endured terrible withdrawal pains, but eventually he discovered that he had regained an ability to concentrate, focus, and sleep that he thought he'd lost forever. And thus the idea for this book was born.
Like Hari's other books, Stolen Focus follows a particular structure. In each chapter, he introduces a reason that we can no longer pay attention, supported by extensive interviews with experts. For those who have studied this issue even in passing, none of these arguments are particularly original — Hari blames the rise of Facebook and Google, a collective inability to sleep, and the surplus of processed food for our troubles. He argues that American children are overmedicated and over-monitored by anxious parents, who seem to have forgotten that their own childhoods featured long stretches of unsupervised play.
Not all of Hari's arguments hit the mark. A chapter on education argues that children suffer when forced to study things that they're not interested in, a questionable proposition that seems to have little to do with the subject of attention. Indeed, Stolen Focus can occasionally veer too far from its main argument and can often feel like a polemic against modern society in general.
Even still, it's hard to argue that Hari isn't onto something — and as a gifted storyteller, Stolen Focus seems likely, ironically, to stick with readers in a way that similar books may not.
The narrative hook of the book involves a three-month vacation Hari took to Provincetown, Massachusetts, where he went to great lengths to avoid the internet. He replaced his smartphone with an old phone that cannot do anything but make calls, and took a laptop too decrepit to go online. Initially, Hari endured terrible withdrawal pains, but eventually he discovered that he had regained an ability to concentrate, focus, and sleep that he thought he'd lost forever. And thus the idea for this book was born.
Like Hari's other books, Stolen Focus follows a particular structure. In each chapter, he introduces a reason that we can no longer pay attention, supported by extensive interviews with experts. For those who have studied this issue even in passing, none of these arguments are particularly original — Hari blames the rise of Facebook and Google, a collective inability to sleep, and the surplus of processed food for our troubles. He argues that American children are overmedicated and over-monitored by anxious parents, who seem to have forgotten that their own childhoods featured long stretches of unsupervised play.
Not all of Hari's arguments hit the mark. A chapter on education argues that children suffer when forced to study things that they're not interested in, a questionable proposition that seems to have little to do with the subject of attention. Indeed, Stolen Focus can occasionally veer too far from its main argument and can often feel like a polemic against modern society in general.
Even still, it's hard to argue that Hari isn't onto something — and as a gifted storyteller, Stolen Focus seems likely, ironically, to stick with readers in a way that similar books may not.