Stolen Focus - A Review
Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention
Johann Hari
Psychology / Self Help
Published 2022
★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
Humanity is in crisis. I am not referring to climate change, or to the chronic disease epidemic facing the western world. This is much more serious. It is a crisis of attention. We are, increasingly rapidly, losing our ability to focus; to pay attention. And without this, every single other struggle we face as a species will become impossible.
Such is the message of Hari’s book, Stolen Focus.
Stolen Focus chronicles the steady demise of human attention over the last two centuries or so, exploring (in surprising depth and breadth for a relatively short book) what Hari proposes to be the 12 principal reasons for this. His characteristically open and honest style describes his own struggle to focus and takes us on a journey of personal revelation which will resonate with many. From a trip to Graceland with his godson, to a self-imposed 3-month monastic-style solitude in a beach hut in Cape Code, where he ditches all internet-enabled social-media connected devices, he realises that forces are at work, subtly infiltrating both his conscious and unconscious mind, leaving him no longer in control. His attention has been hijacked, and he is no longer its true master.
Even as I write this, I am aware of my need to keep it short. You’ll probably be getting distracted, looking to switch to something else. You may not even be aware. This is Hari’s point. Exploring the various challenges of the modern world which hijack our focus: tech, sleep deprivation, stress, decline of reading, poor diet, pollution, surveillance capitalism, information overload to name a few, he provides a solid evidential basis for the theories he is putting forward as to what is destroying our attention, travelling the world to interview leading thinkers on both sides of the debate, those who believe we are in a crisis and those who remain unconvinced.
His analysis is thorough and well-researched, his conclusion unsettling: we are losing control of our minds…and it is largely out of our control. Why does this matter? Because humanity is confronting a very real threat to its survival: climate change. Overcoming it will demand our full, collective attention. Without it, society risks an even deeper divide between those who control and those who are controlled. The question is: which side will you end up on?
This book is a fascinating and thought-provoking exploration of a phenomenon that many readers will likely recognise, perhaps uneasily, in themselves: a nagging sense that something essential within has been eroding, though until now, it’s been difficult to pinpoint or explain. Hari has an explanation - or rather 12 - and they are compelling. You may find comfort in this; others will find it deeply unsettling.
Having tested potential solutions on himself with some success (though the book was published in 2022, so it would be interesting to know whether he has maintained them: I haven’t checked) Hari suggests there is hope. We can reclaim our focus, and we must if we are to survive.
If you feel like you are never getting anything done, that you are constantly distracted - tab hopping, infinite scrolling - and you want to be free, this book is for you. Take the red pill. Read it. And start reclaiming your attention from the forces that seek to control you.
Aimi Walsh
The Enjoolata Foundation