INTRODUCTION

“Stolen Focus” goes over how our focus/attention is being stolen in our modern world. What are the reasons, who is responsible for that, etc., and how can we safeguard our attention from these reasons? The author, Johann Hari, researched this by talking to many doctors, scientists, psychology experts, engineers, etc., worldwide. This blog post explores the book’s central themes, who should read it, key takeaways from each chapter, etc., which could help improve focus and productivity. This is an elaborate post compared to previous summaries due to the depth of research and the importance of regaining our focus.

WHO SHOULD READ THIS BOOK

“Stolen Focus” is a must-read for anyone who feels overwhelmed by the constant distractions of the digital age. Whether you are a student struggling to concentrate on studies, a parent or teacher who is trying to understand the implications of digital distractions on children, a professional overwhelmed by information overload, or simply someone yearning for deeper focus in personal development in their daily life, “Stolen Focus” offers insights and practical strategies to reclaim your attention.

SUMMARY AND KEY TAKEAWAYS

CHAPTER – 1

The author goes on a detox from digital devices/media, etc., by shifting to a remote town called “Provincetown” near Cape Cod. After a long time, he experiences serenity without the internet, phones, and distractions. He reads books and newspapers and interacts with strangers in the town. He goes over the topic of “multi-tasking, “ basically switching from one task to another. It takes about 20+ minutes to get back to the same depth or focus.

Fact: The human brain can only simultaneously produce 1 or 2 thoughts in our conscious mind.

Drawbacks/Consequences of multitasking:

1. Switch cost-effect: Switching from one task to another, your brain must re-configure, which takes a little time.
2. Screw-up effect: When switching, errors/glitches can occur more often than when focused attention is used.
3. Creativity drain: new ideas pop up during focused attention. The brain thinks back and makes connections from the learnings during focused work and new ideas pop.
4. Diminished memory effect: If you multitask, you won’t remember what you’ve done compared to focusing on one task at once (Research at UCLA proved this)

CHAPTER – 2

”If you’ve spent long enough being interrupted in your daily life, you will start to interrupt yourself even when you are set free from all these external interruptions.” – Gloria Mark

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (Hungarian American psychologist) studies identifying aspects of flow and how to get there. There are three core components:

1. Choose a clearly defined goal – focus on one thing only. 
2. Do something meaningful to you.
3. It will help if you do something at the edge of your abilities but not beyond them.

Once you have created these conditions and hit flow, you can recognize it because it’s a distinctive mental state. You feel you are purely present in the moment.

Deep insight from Mihaly – “We have within us a force that makes it possible to focus for long stretches and enjoy them, and it will make us happier and healthier if we create these right circumstances.”

“We know, at some level, that when we are not focusing, we are not using one of our greatest capacities. Starved of flow, we become stumps of ourselves, sensing somewhere what we might have seen.”

We all have a choice between fragmentation and flow. Fragmentation makes you smaller, shallower, and angrier. Flow makes you more significant, deeper, and calmer. Fragmentation shrinks us. Flow expands us. Your life’s trajectory depends on what you choose between the two.

CHAPTER – 3

This chapter covers the mental and physical exhaustion of our current generation, how we lack sleep, are constantly bombarded by our screens, and are exposed to blue light, which in turn disturbs our sleep cycle. Today, 40% of Americans are chronically sleep deprived, getting less than 7 hours of sleep every night. Only 15% of us wake up from our sleep feeling refreshed.

“Sleep deficiency” causes adults and kids to lose attention. We often drink coffee, which blocks sleep receptors, causing us to be more tired once caffeine wears out.

Studies showed that if you stay awake for 18 hours, your reactions are equivalent to having 0.05% blood alcohol. Staying up another 3 hours is comparable to being legally drunk. Dr. Sandra Kooji says, “When we sleep better, a lot of problems get less – like mood disorders, obesity, concentration problems – It repairs a lot of damage.”

CHAPTER – 4

“Take care what technologies you use because your consciousness will, over time, be shaped like these technologies.”

CHAPTER – 5 

Johann goes over mind-wandering or attention. When you let your mind wander, you are better at having personal goals, being creative, and making patient, long-term decisions. Mind-wandering is a different form of attention compared to a singer at a concert.

When there are unresolved issues, the brain tries to make things fit if it’s just given the space to do it. Mind-wandering allows more extended trains of thought to unfold, allowing more associations to be made. Many studies show breakthroughs happened in science and engineering like this in history.

CHAPTER – 6

The author goes over the concept of technology that engages us daily using its applications, websites, etc., which is deteriorating our attention and focus. Technology companies like Google, Facebook, Snapchat, etc. invest billions of dollars to learn more about human psychology and how to get more attention (engagement as they refer to it in Silicon Valley) – which gets more screentime/scrolling – which generates more money from advertising to the company.

The author interviews many Silicon Valley Company founders and engineers about this; many are scared about the products they created and what it’s doing to the world.

CHAPTER – 7

This chapter deep dives into algorithms used by technology companies. They have a model of you, and every time you search for something or like/share/comment/subscribe, etc., to something – it will add these to your model. It sorts through heaps and heaps of data generated from your screen time. This information is then sold to vendors to target ads related to you.

For example, if you message your mom about diapers/newborn babies, you receive ads from Target, Walmart, Amazon, and other companies on diapers on sale.

Companies generate a lot of money like this. That’s the reason for developing algorithms that don’t give you what you are looking for directly, instead they give you a lot of unwanted information with a glimpse of what you are looking for or what makes you happy and scroll further.

This is not just reducing individual attention/focus but also collective attention. We can’t fight something individually; we need to do it collectively for some change regarding technology usage or global warming – but this doesn’t allow it by promoting negativity more on the platforms as negative news spreads faster than positive news.

Johann mentioned that he learned that there are six ways in which the current technology operates that are harming our attention:

1. They make/train our minds to crave frequent rewards. They make us eager for likes and hearts. We look for outside validation from others. 
2. These sites and apps push you to switch tasks more frequently than usual.
3. These sites look and learn what makes you angry, happy, etc. They learn your personal triggers to distract you and keep you scrolling continuously.
4. Because of the algorithms written, these sites make you angry a lot of the time, decreasing your “depth of processing” and making you think in a shallower, less attentive way. The algorithms promote words like “attack, bad, blame, etc.”
5. They make you feel angry and makes you think that other people’s anger surrounds you. This can trigger a different psychological response in you – like you become vigilant compared to being calm and happy – this is where your attention shifts to searching for dangers and decreases your focus on other things.
6. These sites set societies on fire. That rage among people can make the algorithms push more angry posts/sites/videos, etc., causing people to make decisions in the heat of the moment without facts. The author gives examples of elections in Brazil and the USA that were influenced by Facebook and Twitter.

CHAPTER – 8

The author goes over a few strategies we can implement individually, like turning off notifications, enabling “Do Not Disturb,” etc., strategies told by author Nir Eyal in his book “Indestructible.” However, Johann contradicts this approach as this would blame individuals more than organizations. There are several engineers behind the screen to fight for your attention- not every person can reduce their attention simply by silencing their phones.

Johann gives the example of obesity – instead of following diets/fat camps to reduce obesity, we need to deal with the underlying causes, such as making whole foods cheaper, processed junk food expensive, etc. Regulations by governments – countries that have done that have fewer obese people compared to the USA and UK, where governments did not. We need a deeper solution to this problem.

CHAPTER – 9

This chapter goes over a few approaches that could help organizations from this “surveillance capitalism” – where they prey on data from you to sell it to the highest bidder to generate profits. Instead, people can start a movement so that the government can regulate these sites and make them for the benefit of people, like shifting to a subscription model where users can set a limit on usage/screen time, etc.

Ex: Facebook can change to a subscription model where users can log in to check which of their friends are in town to hang out and be done with the platform OR promote groups that have similar interests to you, like Readers Club, Bikers Club, Gardening Club, etc. to facilitate connections.

This would help them generate profits and remain a platform that helps people rather than an attention/focus-reducing platform. Johann gives examples of how these platforms influence people, how we can fight against these big corporations to regulate them, etc.

CHAPTER – 10

In this chapter, Johann interviews Dr. Nadine Burke Harris – the surgeon general of California. They go over cases where attention lacking was linked to ADHD, and those people are generally subscribed to prescriptions/medications of potent stimulants like Ritalin or Adderall. The underlying cause of their attention could be due to a state called “Hypervigilance,” – where those people are looking for cues of potential danger instead of being present in the moment. This could happen due to trauma that was caused by various reasons like physical abuse, cruelty, neglect, etc., in their childhood.

So, treatment with drugs/medications isn’t a solution. It’s like a band-aid treatment for an underlying issue. So, Dr. Nadine goes over a few approaches like therapy, yoga, meditation, etc., that could help reduce their hyper-vigilance and be attentive.

Being in a peaceful environment could improve attention and focus.

CHAPTER – 11 

There are currently a lot of organizations across the world that have shifted from a traditional 5-day workweek to a 4-day workweek. Studies show that there has been an increase in the productivity of employees/companies along with an improvement in focus and attention as people are happier due to the rest of the personal time they are getting. Covid-19 has taught the world a big lesson: Companies can be run remotely without people entering physical offices. Many employees are inclined towards remote work due to the time they save when it comes to getting ready for work, commuting, traffic, etc. They can also spend time doing something they love and create memories with their kids and family.

CHAPTER – 12

Another reason for the reduction of people’s focus and attention in our generation is the pollution around us. It could be air or water pollution – the air we breathe and the food we consume consist of chemicals that are not good for us and do not benefit the growth of human brains.

Controlling or eliminating them is the only way to increase focus or attention. Examples of such pollutants are lead, PCBs – Polychlorinated Biphenyls, etc. These can affect brain development, thyroid hormone signaling, etc., in humans.

1. Planting more trees helps to reduce air pollution.
2. Pressuring governments to perform safety tests before usage helps.
3. Banning chemicals that could be harmful helps our focus and attention.

CHAPTER – 13

A lot of doctors are diagnosing children who are not able to pay attention to ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder). Between 2003 and 2011, diagnoses of ADHD in the USA increased by 43% overall and by 55% in girls. Usually, it is diagnosed with powerful stimulants, which increase their attention in the short term.

A lot of doctors and scientists in the world also argue that children/adults not being able to pay attention is not because of ADHD and shouldn’t be treated as such. Few doctors deal with this issue in a way different from that of medications. They generally try to listen carefully, understand the background, and offer practical support to change the child’s environment; it almost always reduces or ends their problem.

One scientific study showed – after 14 months of stimulants, kids performed 1.8% better on academic tests. However, kids who were given guidance on their behavior for the same amount of time improved by 1.6%.

Some studies show kids brought up in poor or chaotic households were more likely to have issues with focus or attention.

This doesn’t mean all the ADHD cases can be solved with a change in environment. Most of them can. For others, they can offer prescriptions, according to a few doctors in psychology.

CHAPTER – 14

Kids in this current generation don’t have the same freedom as our previous generations a few decades ago when it comes to playing outside, riding blocks, climbing trees, free play, etc. Back then, kids used to play on the streets in the neighborhood along with others, but now that thought has become almost a nightmare to parents – leaving kids without supervision.

Kids need that play time without their parents’ supervision telling them what to do and how to play. This free play helps kids in many ways, according to studies – it helps them understand “how to make something happen while playing – creativity increases, you know how to read people so that the game keeps going, become creative when there are no games to play, you have to persuade other kids that your game is the best one to play, you learn how to negotiate when it’s your turn – knowing other person’s needs and desires, and how to meet them. You learn how to cope with being disappointed or frustrated, etc.

Kids nowadays do not have the freedom to play on their own terms. Many studies show that playtime is needed for brain development. But current schooling is going in the other direction. They learn to learn in play.

People generally like to do something they want, and that’s called intrinsic motivation. You’re not doing it to get some other reward farther down the line; you’re doing it because you love it. Extrinsic motivation – you’re not doing it because the act gives you a sense of pleasure or fulfillment – you are doing it because you have been forced to or to get something later.

How you learn to focus is automatic if something interests you, absorbs you, or thrills you. If something is focused on you externally, it doesn’t motivate you enough to learn.

When kids are deprived of challenges and something they like to pursue, their competency is reduced when they are guided by adults all the time. Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt argues that is one of the reasons why anxiety is skyrocketing. When you are anxious, your attention will suffer, too.

There are schools around the world that are incorporating play times in their coursework. Even better are schools in countries like Finland, where children are not sent to school until they are seven years old. Before that, they play. Between ages 7 and 16, they go to school from 9-2 with no homework afterward; no tests are conducted until they graduate from high school. By law, teachers must give 15 minutes of free play after 45 minutes of instruction. The outcome is pretty awesome – only 0.1% of their kids are diagnosed with attention problems, and Finns are among the world’s most literate, numerate, and happy people.

We need to change our standard of schooling so that kids can incorporate time to pursue their intrinsic motivation and free playtime. This increases their attention compared to tests all day.

CONCLUSION

Johann goes over six changes he made to bring attention/focus back into his life. They are:

1. He used pre-commitment to stop switching tasks so much. He uses tools like KSafe to lock his phone and software like Freedom on his laptop to block internet access. 
2. He changed his approach, blaming himself for his reduced focus. He thinks more along the lines of improving flow than self-punishing shame.
3. Taking time off from social media.
4. Taking time to let mind-wandering. Goes on walks every day without his phone.
5. Sleep for 8 hours. Avoid screen time 2 hours before sleep.
6. Spending time with his god-kids – and letting them have free play time with no restrictions.

He also goes over starting a movement against corporations that want people to be distracted so that they can earn more money. He named it “Attention Rebellion” and pushed for changes regarding technologies like social media, which raises our focus/attention that can be put to collective use towards reducing other vital things like Global Warming, Pollution, etc.

“I used to think there were no great political struggles left. How wrong I was. The liberation of human attention may be the defining moral and political struggle of our time. Its success is the pre-requisite for the success of virtually all other struggles. “– James Williams.

“At the start of World War – II, the English poet W.H. Auden – when he looked out over the new technologies of destruction that had been created by humans – warned: “We must love one, another, or die.”

Johann goes over what the Attention Rebellion movement needs to look like OR fight for:

1. Ban surveillance capitalism to increase focus.
2. Introduce 4-day workweeks.
3. Rebuild childhood around letting kids play freely – in their neighborhoods, at schools – to develop a healthy ability to pay attention.

This followed overtime would increase our attention and focus dramatically. We can improve on it further. By implementing the strategies outlined in the book, we can rediscover the power of deep focus and lead more fulfilling lives. Johann Hari’s “Stolen Focus” is a MUST READ!!!!