Attention has entered a deep crisis: what are the reasons? who is stealing it from us, and, most importantly, how can we recover our ability to concentrate? A powerful essay that explores one of the great epidemics of the moment and its possible solutions.
According to some of the latest published studies, teenagers are only able to concentrate on a task for sixty-five seconds, while adults can barely last three minutes. Like many of us, Johann Hari is aware of the dangers posed by the omnipresence of screens, as well as the urge to constantly switch from one device to another without looking up. Nowadays, achieving the necessary state of concentration to undertake intellectually complex and demanding tasks is almost a chimera.
Hari decided to interview leading experts in human concentration to identify the causes of this crisis. In "The Value of Attention" he breaks down the twelve factors that generated it, and denounces the powerful companies that are stealing our focus. He also gives us the tools to understand the situation, defend ourselves and recover our ability to live with attention.