Hari concludes that devices play a strong role – and there are fascinating sections in this book about how the apps and devices we used are designed to hijack our attention – but that it is not the only reason why so many people find it hard to engage in slower activities (like reading, although no issues here), being creative or to be alone with their thoughts. He also found himself returning quickly and easily to bad habits upon his return. He read books with more focus, read the whole newspaper for his updates and had deep conversations with the friends he made. He noticed a remarkable increase in attention and decrease in stress. As an attempt to explore his relationship to devices and social media, he took himself off to Provincetown for three months, leaving all his devices behind – a digital detox as such. Hari, a journalist and author, starts with a personal anecdote of noticing a diminishment of his young nephew’s attention, and then how he turned the lens back onto himself. I wasn’t sure I was ready for any non-fiction after two weeks in isolation and the longest term on record, but Johann Hari’s important Stolen Focus captured me within a few pages and I kept looking for excuses to educate myself more by further reading of his book.
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