Many living in the modern world would agree that the internet is a prominent obstacle to staying focused. Johann Hari, a writer, and journalist, started a journey to improve his ability to focus by moving to Provincetown, a small beach town located in Massachusetts with only an analog phone and no access to the internet. The phone contains only six emergency contact numbers which are his only outlet to the outer world. During his three month stay in the remote area, Hari returned to a slower life of reading, taking walks, and relaxing. Yet, as soon as he returned from Provincetown back to daily life, he realized that there were multiple layers to a lack of focus, with more layers forming due to modern society. The book, Stolen Focus, almost journal-like, records Hari’s complex exploration towards a simple question; “Why can’t we focus?” He takes multiple approaches to the problem, reaching a solution from both individual and societal scopes. 

During his stay in Provincetown, Hari experienced a significant improvement in his ability to focus. Although he felt that staying away from the internet did help, he felt the bigger contributor was escaping from daily life within modern society. Hari sees the overall decline in the ability to focus as a disease with its roots in modern daily life. He compares the phenomenon to obesity. Obesity was not a problem of concern until the last 50 years, amid the prevalence of junk food. As such, Hari asserts that life in modern society is highly different from the natural way of human life – this difference is the main cause of illness in humanity. Loss of focus is one of these modern illnesses. 

In modern society, most people’s schedules are packed with things to do. We often perform multiple tasks at once, sometimes without even realizing it. We do not perceive breathing and working at the same time as performing multiple tasks because we breathe naturally without conceiving the need to breathe. Hari asserts that the same thing is happening with digital devices. Part of us is always aware of the alerts that digital devices send to us without even realizing. However, because awareness or focusing is a limited resource, the cost of constant interruptions is extortionate. With such digital interruptions, the efficiency of work drops by 20 percent, which is a similar decrease to being intoxicated by Marijuana. These frequent interruptions deprive the experience of becoming immersed, hindering the ability to become fully focused on a given task. Also, the instant and rapid feedback that social media provides deteriorates the brain’s reward system which makes it harder to engage in activities that take longer time to reach salient results, such as reading a book. 

Additionally, contemporary people are deprived of rest. This causes problems in two ways. First, the lack of sleep leads to a lack of rack. Along with artificial lighting that harms one’s biological clock, the constant alarms from digital devices put both the quantity and quality of sleep at stake. When people are awake for a long time, their state of mind becomes increasingly unclear. When people stay awake for more than 18 consecutive hours, the brain falls into a state of topical sleep, which is a state where only a part of the brain is awake. In this state, people think they are awake, but their cognitive ability is similar to being drunk with a 0.05 blood alcohol level. While more and more people rely on drugs and alcohol due to insomnia to find sleep, the quality of drug- aided sleep is not as good as natural sleep. This is devastating because the more people are deprived of deep sleep, fewer people dream. Dreams are a major part of the emotional stress coping mechanism. This leads to secondary damage because stress is another critical factor in lowering the ability to focus. 

Hari does acknowledge that it is irresponsible to blame individuals for the focus crisis when society is practically driving them toward the lifestyle of such. Also, he emphasizes that poorer people are more prone to such a lifestyle. To widen the scope of view, Hari visits Silicon Valley and meets the social media architects. Technology companies gain interest from screen time. The longer the users stay, the more profit they make.

Contraptions such as infinite scroll and personalized content keep people in on screens. The algorithms of social media are engineered to promote provocative content that cause negative feelings and thus, cause stress to the users. Fake news makes the situation worse because it makes it harder to identify between real problems and exaggerated problems shown on screen. Hari emphasizes the impossibility of escaping social media through individual will. Technology companies are armed with the most educated and intelligent people in the world, massive capital, and personal information about each user. To solve the problem, Hari asserts that the government should regulate these companies to change their profit structure from a fundamental level. He claims that by providing “free service,” companies profit from using the users as a means. Instead, we should make these technology companies work for the users by giving financial control to the users. In other words, users should be charged in order to use social media. 

Lastly, there is an issue with the way children are raised. Firstly, the food they are provided lacks the necessary nutrients and vitamins for brain development. Instead, ultra-processed food causes surges and plummets in blood sugar levels. When blood sugar levels drop dramatically, the brain is left in a fuzzy state, making it impossible to focus. Secondly, ADHD is being over diagnosed. To illustrate this point, Hari uses his interview with Nadine Ezard, the Clinical Director of the Alcohol and Drug Service at Sydney Saint Vincent hospital, According to Ezard, children diagnosed with ADHD are prescribed Dexmethylphenidate, which is the same substance that is used as a substitute for Methamphetamine, a highly addictive drug that causes more than 30,000 deaths annually within the U.S. Also pointing out limitations of the existing research related to ADHD, Hari says that doctors are using drugs to address the focus issue when altering diet and daily habits are more safe and effective. Thirdly, the education status quo deprives the experience of creative playing. Making games and playing with peers helps children develop creativity, personality, inner passion, and the ability to cooperate. However, due to the trend of formalized education systems and overprotection by parents, providing children with pre-existing games and specific rules that must be followed has become common. This limits a crucial part of the playing process where children get to experience a feeling of control and efficacy. Children are less likely to search for their own interests and therefore the experience where they are immersed in something becomes scarcer. 

In the epilogue, Hari admits that he was not able to find a fundamental solution for the focus issue. However, he does come up with small changes in daily life that enhanced his ability to focus. Strictly limiting the usage of digital devices and social media, taking plenty of time to sleep, and taking walks every day were some of the small changes. He confessed that these small changes enhanced his ability to focus by at the least 20 percent. Although the book does not offer a universal solution, it takes a look at the problem from multiple angles and scopes, uncovering that there is a systemic problem. This fresh approach to a problem that is intimately connected with our daily lives has captured the heart of many. Stolen Focus has become a New York Times bestseller, also ranking as one of Amazon’s top ten best books. Many have compared the book to a series of TED talks. Although the book contains plenty of peer-reviewed research to support the main argument and has multiple views from professionals of different fields, everything is conveyed in an easy-to-understand manner. Why don’t you give it a try, walking down the lane to a more focused life?