00:00:00
we are amusing ourselves to death video
00:00:02
TV movies music podcast and on top of
00:00:06
that constant notifications they're all
00:00:08
flooding in we are always being
00:00:10
stimulated and as a result it is killing
00:00:13
our ability to focus and this isn't just
00:00:15
something that we've noticed about
00:00:16
ourselves research backs this up
00:00:19
attention spans are declining it's easy
00:00:21
to blame the internet for this problem
00:00:23
but it's actually much older than that
00:00:24
though the internet's made it worse and
00:00:26
if we want to do something about it we
00:00:28
need to be able to break down the
00:00:29
problem and really talk about where it
00:00:31
comes from so that's what we're going to
00:00:33
do
00:00:35
today so I'm breaking this problem down
00:00:37
into three parts and it all begins with
00:00:39
a shift from books to
00:00:41
television so in the 1980s Neil Postman
00:00:44
wrote the book amusing ourselves to
00:00:46
death and he was primarily interested in
00:00:48
the cultural effects of a shift from
00:00:50
using the written word as our primary
00:00:53
way to transfer information to a shift
00:00:55
towards mass media and in particular
00:00:57
television the invention of the printing
00:00:59
press changed the world suddenly mass
00:01:01
communication was possible on a scale
00:01:03
that had previously always been
00:01:04
impossible and this is how new and
00:01:06
radical ideas were able to so quickly
00:01:08
spread so the Protestant Reformation
00:01:10
probably wouldn't have happened without
00:01:11
the printing press or the enlightenment
00:01:13
or the American Revolution but media
00:01:15
theorist like Postman and here we should
00:01:17
also mention the work of Marshall mclen
00:01:19
also tell us that how we communicate
00:01:22
ideas the media that we use actually
00:01:24
changes the way that we think mcl's
00:01:27
favorite phrase here was the the medium
00:01:30
is the message so Postman uses early
00:01:33
American culture as an example of what
00:01:35
he calls the typographic mind this is a
00:01:37
mind that has been shaped primarily
00:01:39
through consuming books and that means
00:01:41
that it's a mind that's used to prolong
00:01:43
sessions of engaged serious rational
00:01:45
activity in other words it's a mind
00:01:47
that's used to focusing so that's the
00:01:49
first takeaway reading as an activity
00:01:51
actually helps build your focus and it
00:01:53
shifts the way that you think but we've
00:01:56
stopped reading in postman's time more
00:01:58
people were watching television than
00:02:00
reading and those numbers have only
00:02:02
gotten worse when you add screens and
00:02:04
the internet and phones and all of that
00:02:05
which we'll talk about later well that
00:02:07
just exacerbates the problem two famous
00:02:09
examples from American political history
00:02:11
actually illustrate this really well the
00:02:13
first one is the 1858 Lincoln Douglas
00:02:15
debates these are famous pieces of
00:02:17
American political rhetoric you should
00:02:19
read them if you're at all interested
00:02:21
some sources say that up to 18,000
00:02:23
people attended these debates and they
00:02:25
were later printed that's how you can
00:02:26
read them and it's actually how Lincoln
00:02:28
became famous in the first first place
00:02:30
so each debate was 3 hours long and it
00:02:32
would actually begin with a 60-minute
00:02:34
opening statement from one of the
00:02:36
candidates and then there was a highly
00:02:37
structured format with prolonged
00:02:40
responses this meant that the audience
00:02:41
had to be able to stay focused for 3
00:02:43
hours and also needed to be able to
00:02:45
follow a single complex thought for up
00:02:48
to an hour or sometimes 90 minutes at a
00:02:51
time and Postman says that they're able
00:02:52
to do this because this audience which
00:02:55
would have mostly been literate people
00:02:57
would be used to following long trains
00:02:59
of thought thought because they had been
00:03:00
reading books and when you read the
00:03:03
Lincoln Douglas debates you actually see
00:03:05
aors speaking in Long complex sentences
00:03:08
how they speak is actually being
00:03:09
influenced by the kinds of sentences
00:03:10
that they would have read but if you
00:03:12
skip forward to 1960 and the Kennedy
00:03:14
Nixon debates you see something really
00:03:16
different because these were the first
00:03:17
political debates that were on
00:03:19
television so instead of an hour for an
00:03:21
opening statement the entire debate was
00:03:23
only an hour and the open statement that
00:03:25
each candidate got was only 8 minutes
00:03:27
this meant that the audience watching at
00:03:29
home didn't have to worry about
00:03:31
following one thought for up to an hour
00:03:33
or 90 minutes instead they just got it
00:03:35
into small condensed chunks of
00:03:38
information that they could more easily
00:03:39
consume and that mirrors their General
00:03:41
Media consumption that they would get
00:03:43
from watching television all the time
00:03:44
the whole debate was only an hour it
00:03:46
literally was it was one slot of prime
00:03:48
time television and you know what the
00:03:49
big takeaway of that debate was was that
00:03:51
Nixon looked bad on TV that's why people
00:03:53
say that he lost Kennedy looked better
00:03:55
on TV Nixon's mom called him to ask him
00:03:57
if he was sick generally he just didn't
00:03:59
perform well in front of the camera and
00:04:02
he lost the election political history
00:04:04
or probably world history was made
00:04:06
because of Television so already the
00:04:08
media that we were consuming was
00:04:09
changing the way that we were going to
00:04:11
engage in politics that's a big
00:04:13
consequential change if you think about
00:04:15
how much power an American president has
00:04:17
television was making us used to
00:04:19
consuming smaller sort of bite-sized
00:04:21
pieces of information and it also made
00:04:23
us more concerned with things like the
00:04:25
appearance of a presidential candidate
00:04:27
rather than what he was saying and I
00:04:29
imagine that if they had tried to have a
00:04:31
three-hour debate on Prime Time
00:04:33
television ratings would have slowly
00:04:35
declined people weren't used to focusing
00:04:38
for 3 hours at a time anymore the media
00:04:40
that we were consuming was changing our
00:04:42
ability to think and it was causing our
00:04:44
ability to focus to atopy focus is a
00:04:46
skill that you have to develop and if
00:04:48
we're watching television all the time
00:04:50
well we aren't training ourselves to be
00:04:52
deep and reflective thinkers especially
00:04:54
not in the way that we would if we were
00:04:56
reading good books so then when it comes
00:04:58
time to focus on something like trying
00:05:00
to read a really good book well you
00:05:02
can't do it you never learned how people
00:05:04
will often tell me that uh reading books
00:05:06
nowadays is inefficient and that there
00:05:09
are just better ways to get information
00:05:11
and um I'm going to use some slang here
00:05:13
that I think I'm too old to use
00:05:14
sincerely but uh this is pure cope
00:05:16
getting your information from summaries
00:05:18
or even from YouTube videos like the
00:05:19
ones that I make is a completely
00:05:21
different experience than learning from
00:05:23
a book because in a book you actually
00:05:26
get to follow an author's Chain of
00:05:28
Thought So as you read an author
00:05:29
thoughts in a book you are actually
00:05:31
thinking with him you're actually
00:05:33
training yourself to think and as you
00:05:34
train yourself to think you're training
00:05:36
yourself to focus you get like a mental
00:05:38
workout when you read and you're not
00:05:40
getting that
00:05:42
elsewhere so you're probably screaming
00:05:44
at your screen right now because TV
00:05:45
certainly isn't the most important form
00:05:47
of media that we encounter nowadays a
00:05:50
cable news show gets fewer nighttime
00:05:51
viewers than a really good YouTube video
00:05:53
these days and maybe the fact that we
00:05:55
can't focus is due to the internet and
00:05:57
the constant amount of notifications and
00:05:59
this like swarm of content that we're
00:06:01
constantly in or in other words you
00:06:03
might think that it's this that's to
00:06:05
blame and I think that's right just like
00:06:06
we shifted from books to television
00:06:08
we've now moved from television to the
00:06:10
internet and that's a different way of
00:06:12
thinking about information post couldn't
00:06:14
write about the internet because he was
00:06:15
writing about in the 80s but another
00:06:16
writer has come along to try to pick up
00:06:19
some of these thoughts and that's
00:06:20
Nicholas C who wrote the book the
00:06:21
shallows so if you had to describe one
00:06:23
word to sort of sum up your experience
00:06:26
of the internet I have a feeling it
00:06:28
would be something like chaos the whole
00:06:31
point of a page on the web is actually
00:06:32
just to keep you looking at it so if you
00:06:35
look at like say your YouTube home
00:06:37
screen you're going to see rows and rows
00:06:38
of videos then you're going to see
00:06:40
possibly notifications if you have any
00:06:42
of those turned on you're going to see a
00:06:44
search bar that tells you that you could
00:06:45
go find anything that you wanted if you
00:06:48
search for a video well then very
00:06:50
quickly you're going to be given
00:06:51
recommendations click on one video and
00:06:53
you're immediately recommended like 12
00:06:55
more the whole point of that design is
00:06:57
that if you ever get bored for even a
00:07:00
second you can click on something else
00:07:01
so that you can stay engaged we're so
00:07:03
used to it that it feels normal but it
00:07:05
it is a chaotic experience and I think
00:07:07
YouTube is not even the worst offender
00:07:09
by far I mean look at Tik Tok I don't
00:07:12
really use Tik Tok but when I've opened
00:07:13
the app like twice I feel like I got a
00:07:17
headache almost immediately and I know I
00:07:19
sound I sound old in this video the idea
00:07:21
here is to always give you something to
00:07:23
click on next always so even if you are
00:07:26
watching a 10-minute video and you think
00:07:28
it's a really good 10-minute video and
00:07:29
and you want to finish it until the end
00:07:31
well if you're bored for even a second
00:07:32
you have something that could be
00:07:34
potentially more exciting you could
00:07:36
click on it and you could see because
00:07:38
these platforms actually don't really
00:07:40
care if you keep watching one particular
00:07:41
video or if you keep reading one
00:07:43
particular article they just want you to
00:07:45
stay on the platform Tik Tok wants you
00:07:47
on Tik Tok YouTube Wants You on YouTube
00:07:49
The New York Times wants you to stay on
00:07:51
the New York Times site that's how the
00:07:53
internet works this medium teaches you
00:07:55
that information is easy and disposable
00:07:57
if you're even a little bit bored you
00:07:58
can move on in fact you should move on
00:08:01
that's that's implicitly what these
00:08:02
platforms are telling you in Carr's book
00:08:04
he really likes to stress the plasticity
00:08:06
of our brains that's our ability to
00:08:08
change actually how our brains are
00:08:09
structured in response to our
00:08:11
environments our brains actually change
00:08:13
based on what we do what we need to do
00:08:15
and what kind of tools we use so look at
00:08:17
this chart for the average screen time
00:08:19
for Americans and now ask yourself what
00:08:22
do you think that is doing to our brains
00:08:25
well one of the things is it's ruining
00:08:26
our ability to focus the bad news is
00:08:29
that yourin bra is plastic so the fact
00:08:31
that you use your phone all the time or
00:08:33
that you watch too many YouTube videos
00:08:34
means that you are slowly ruining your
00:08:37
ability to focus the good news though is
00:08:39
that your brain is plastic so you could
00:08:42
fix this if you made an effort to read
00:08:44
more books watch less YouTube throw your
00:08:46
phone into like the fires of mountain
00:08:48
Doom so it could never bother you again
00:08:50
well that would actually give you a way
00:08:51
to save your ability to focus this
00:08:54
really is a solvable problem but you
00:08:56
have to remember that there is a war
00:08:58
going on for your attention
00:09:00
and it is not a fair fight there are
00:09:02
large corporations with phds in
00:09:05
Psychology and the best design Engineers
00:09:07
that they can find all working to keep
00:09:09
you engaged and that's why I like to say
00:09:12
that the internet is a hostile design
00:09:14
environment so here's a quote from the
00:09:16
first president of Facebook Sean Parker
00:09:19
the thought process that went into
00:09:20
building these applications Facebook
00:09:21
being the first of them was all about
00:09:23
how do we consume as much of your time
00:09:25
and conscious attention as possible and
00:09:27
that means we need to sort of give a
00:09:28
little dopamine hit every once in a
00:09:30
while because someone liked or commented
00:09:32
on a photo or a post or whatever and
00:09:35
that's just one very telling admission
00:09:37
from someone who would know if you
00:09:39
listen to other people talk about
00:09:40
designing digital experiences though it
00:09:43
really is basically the same it's all
00:09:44
about capturing and really holding on to
00:09:47
your attention by comparison something
00:09:49
like this a book it's not that good at
00:09:52
holding your attention unless you're
00:09:54
really used to giving your attention to
00:09:56
it I think that's a nice way of putting
00:09:58
it book you have to give your attention
00:10:00
to books but phones screens the internet
00:10:03
videos they steal your attention that's
00:10:06
why I say that it's a hostile design
00:10:07
environment it is a environment that has
00:10:10
been designed in order to steal your
00:10:13
attention and thus rob you of your
00:10:15
ability to focus as much as possible
00:10:18
because people make money from it I mean
00:10:20
look I have to even say this if I can
00:10:22
keep you watching until the end of this
00:10:24
video I make more money and the people
00:10:26
who design these platforms they're not
00:10:28
thinking about what what this does to
00:10:30
you long term Steve Jobs told the New
00:10:32
York Times that he wouldn't let his kids
00:10:34
use an iPad and Mark Zuckerberg and his
00:10:36
wife don't let their kids use Facebook I
00:10:39
don't even know if they let their kids
00:10:41
have phones basically these are people
00:10:42
who would really know the effects of
00:10:44
these Technologies they help to design
00:10:46
and build them and popularize them and
00:10:49
they know what it does to people and
00:10:50
they wanted to protect their kids from
00:10:52
that so I would ask why don't you want
00:10:54
to protect yourself from that now there
00:10:56
are things you can do to build your
00:10:58
focus but they're all easier said than
00:11:00
done first you you have to turn off your
00:11:02
phone you have to learn to take long
00:11:05
breaks from it if you can take dayong
00:11:07
breaks from it if you can go an entire
00:11:09
day without looking at your phone then
00:11:11
you're already well on your way but you
00:11:13
have to get used to it having something
00:11:14
in your pocket that can always grab your
00:11:16
attention with a single sound or a buzz
00:11:18
or even if you have on silent the
00:11:20
ability the sort of promise that if you
00:11:22
just turned it on maybe you would find
00:11:24
something fun that is going to rob you
00:11:27
of your ability to focus next you want
00:11:29
to start consuming media that actually
00:11:31
demands that you pay attention this
00:11:33
could even be movies it doesn't always
00:11:35
have to be books but if you're going to
00:11:37
watch movies they can't be those new
00:11:38
Netflix movies because those movies are
00:11:40
actually being written and produced with
00:11:43
the intention that you will watch them
00:11:44
while you're also scrolling on your
00:11:46
phone like they're made for people who
00:11:48
are distracted it's already changing the
00:11:50
way that we make art so watch actual
00:11:53
good movies go to a movie theater that
00:11:54
will kick you out if you turn your phone
00:11:56
on and the Third Way is probably the
00:11:59
most important get used to not being
00:12:01
digitally stimulated all the time go on
00:12:03
morning walks and don't take your phone
00:12:05
at all just go and be there with your
00:12:07
thoughts maybe even see how long you can
00:12:09
go on that walk while you sustain a
00:12:12
thought in your head you know thinking
00:12:14
through an idea debating with yourself
00:12:16
just try it out it can be more fun than
00:12:18
it sounds the point is to just get used
00:12:20
to not needing to be stimulated by a
00:12:23
phone or by a screen all the time and by
00:12:26
doing that we are going to be training
00:12:28
our brain
00:12:29
to actually rewire themselves we're
00:12:31
actually then encouraging our minds to
00:12:33
get used to focusing again and maybe we
00:12:37
can make a little bit of progress and
00:12:38
we'll actually be able to focus on
00:12:40
things that we care about
