September 5th, 2007 was a life changing day for many of us, and we did not even know it. That is the day Apple released the iPod touch, those fortunate enough to get one remember the trill of having a handheld touch screen device. Not everyone had one, but as the years went on, we all eventually upgraded to some kind of expensive handheld smartphone. Engulfed and infatuated with technology by our early pre-teen years. The rise of the smartphone, the rise of technology has been very helpful but our ability to focus has taken a serious hit.
Our attention spans are shrinking and the ability to have genuine human connections is fading. How did we survive before we carried around a thousand-dollar device in our hands, constantly refreshing, scrolling, and looking for our next hit of dopamine? (Dopamine is a chemical in your brain that makes you feel good.) We eat, sleep, and breathe our phones. This powerful tool has become a powerful crutch, it’s an addiction that we are describing as conve- nience. We struggle to have full conversations, avoid eye contact, and rarely engage in deep, uninterrupted thought. Many of us don’t read books anymore, most of us don’t even go outside anymore un- less it is an absolute necessity. The problem isn’t just that we can’t focus, it’s that we don’t know how anymore.
If it isn’t flashy or fast, we subconsciously tune it out. Long form content of any sort is dying. Movie theaters are emptier than ever because sitting still for two hours without distractions feels impossible. The urge to check our phones is irresistible. We don’t write anymore, or at least not in the way we used to, many of us have forgotten how to write in cursive. The beauty of writing pen to pa- per, is fading. But it’s not just our writing that’s disappear- ing it’s our language itself. We talk the way we type, short and rushed. The younger we are, the worse it seems to get. Are we lazy or have we simply created a bad habit?
The generation that grew up as children and teenagers in the 2010s is seeing the worst of this brain shift. In many ways, we got the best of both worlds, or maybe the worst. We remember life before everything became digital, be- fore smartphones consumed every moment of our atten- tion. We were taught how to write by hand, how to have real conversations, how to function without being glued to a screen. We learned the life skills necessary for focus, patience, and deep thinking. We weren’t raised in a fully digital world, but we were the first to be consumed by it. Our brains have been rewired to prioritize speed over depth. How do we fix it? What do we do? Pick up a book, go outside, watch a movie, put your phone down. Reclaim the skills that you once had.
