#digital-distraction

#digital-distraction

So, let's return to classic literature and take a look at a 19th-century idea that feels remarkably relevant today. It's the danger of too much thought. Many writers have understood the power and peril of thought (and consciousness) long before algorithms began to mimic it. They felt, unlike the LLMs, that the very thing that makes us intelligent can also make us suffer.

For years, public handwringing about the impact of social media on the minds and lives countless millions of teen users has dominated conversations about this increasingly prominent communications medium. Plenty of research suggests it can do real damage, and sites like Instagram have been forced to take steps that try to limit the harm the apps do. But it's not just teens using social media, and a new report explores its use at work and its impact on the productivity.

I've also been reading more. Actual books, that is. And buying way too many. But there is something to looking at those piles stacked around the rooms of my house. All that knowledge and history and art right there at my fingertips. And recently I picked up a magazine, a physical, paper magazine, and have occasionally again started sitting with a newspaper in the mornings. There's something about spreading it out on a table with a nice cup of coffee. Oh, the solitude...

The tech industry can be easy to hate—the erratic CEOs, the biased algorithms, the environmental damage. But beneath all of that is a gigantic, diverse workforce of people who found themselves working in the field.

Constantly glued to my screen, I can't even take time out to enjoy a film. I never intended to become the kind of person so attached to their phone.