If you’re in your forties or beyond, you probably remember what it was like to stare off into the distance and think about things deeply. In the era before smartphones, most of us gazed at clouds and imagined that we saw dragons flying high overhead or got so immersed in books that we were shouted at to turn off the light and get some sleep. So what happened to that ability to think deeply, to contemplate things for hours without getting bored? The distractions listed below are some of the primary culprits that are interfering with this ability.
1. Social media.
According to PC Magazine, the average American will check their phone around 144 times a day, and that number is likely mirrored for most other folks around the world. We live in an era where we’re expected to be available and responsive to whoever is demanding our attention at that moment while simultaneously keeping apprised of everything that’s going on around us.
Furthermore, the dopamine rush associated with social media posts and interactions means that people keep coming back for more, even when they don’t really want to, because it feels so damned good to do so.
If you’re feeling brave, go on a social media fast for a week (or a month) and see how you do without it. After the initial panicked boredom abates — which usually takes a few days — take note of what you get up to when you aren’t scrolling through other people’s lives. You’ll likely pick up crafts you abandoned ages ago and read books that have been on your TBR list for ages now that you finally have the time and bandwidth to devote to them.
2. Short-form content.
The vast majority of content that people read on a daily basis are short-form snippets. Tweets, short blog posts, and excerpts are the order of the day, and most people get bored after reading just a few sentences and move along to their next, more interesting blurb. According to Time Magazine, the average reader spends fewer than 15 seconds reading any given article online.
That’s less time than it takes to tie a pair of shoes, and it speaks volumes about why people’s attention spans and collective ability to think deeply have been hampered so badly.
I’ve always been a voracious reader, but a couple of years ago, I noticed that I was having difficulty immersing myself in books the way I did when I was much younger. I lost focus easily and often had to re-read paragraphs because my attention had strayed. When I got frustrated by this, I’d pick up my phone and scroll a bit to occupy my time in a less taxing manner. My awareness of this behavior made me get rid of my social media accounts, and instead of reading snippets, I got back to reading novels quite easily within just a few days.
3. Background noise.
We’re all surrounded by varying degrees of noise constantly, and this distracts us on both conscious and subconscious levels. According to Frontiers in Psychology, background noise intrudes into our ability to think clearly because those sounds demand our focus and attention. This is why students perform far better in quiet classrooms than they do in noisier ones and why libraries insist upon silence.
You may have difficulty thinking or concentrating deeply because of the intrusive, never-ending hum of the fridge in the next room, traffic noises from a busy street nearby, neighbors who listen to music loudly or whose dogs like to bark non-stop, etc. This is particularly true of introverts and some neurodivergent people, such as those who are autistic, ADHD, or both (AuDHD).
4. Notifications going off.
Intrusive dings and other notification sounds from emails, phone calls, etc., can be absolutely maddening. Every time these occur, they derail our concentration and demand that we take action to stop them. You might also have noticed the appalling proliferation of ads that leap up and demand your immediate attention.
It’s difficult to think and focus deeply on anything when pop-ups keep jumping up and screaming at you to subscribe, buy now, sign up, etc. You can’t even look up a basic culinary recipe or how-to article without having your concentration broken half a dozen times. It seems as though the only way we can be allowed to think deeply is if we retreat to spaces where we won’t be inundated with these interruptions, like a nice, quiet cave dug into a hill outside where one can meditate like a Medieval hermit.
5. Easy access to information.
Most people from our generation had to go to libraries to do research for our school papers. We’d pore through dozens of tomes, make extensive notes, and think carefully about what we were writing before transcribing our notes on a clunky PC. All of this took a significant amount of time and required us to ponder (and concentrate) deeply about the topics at hand.
Why would people take the time to immerse themselves in books and informative websites nowadays in order to delve into subjects and think for themselves when they can simply ask an AI chatbot to do their thinking for them? We now have access to all the information in the world and programs that will both disseminate information for us and write pieces on our behalf if we discard all integrity and allow them to do so.
6. Multitasking.
Most of the jobs I’ve seen posted over the years have encouraged people to apply if they were “skilled multitaskers”. It was seen as a great character trait and meant that the applicants should be expected to juggle numerous tasks at once and be interrupted dozens of times during their workday. Only now are studies coming out that show how damaging multitasking can be to our brains, with damage ranging from actual brain matter loss to cognitive decline and memory degradation.
Furthermore, in addition to multitasking like crazy, most people nowadays aren’t just expected to work overtime — they have little choice but to do so. Many people are working 80 to 100 hours a week just to get by, which leaves little room to think about any subjects outside of work and home responsibilities and what still needs to be done for basic survival.
7. An overabundance of perpetually interruptive responsibilities.
You just start to concentrate deeply on your work when your boss emails you with something that needs an immediate response, or there’s an impromptu video meeting that you can’t opt out of. Or you sit down to read and your child has a crisis, or the cat needs to be let out. Or in.
Essentially, every time you start to focus on and deep-dive into any given subject, something interrupts you and launches your train of thought into another solar system. Furthermore, these interruptions aren’t just annoyances that are prodding at you but could otherwise be ignored: they need to be attended to immediately so you don’t lose your job, see the house set on fire, or have to clean up something horrific that one of the creatures in your home has created.
8. Awareness of the world’s woes.
It’s difficult to think deeply and ponder all things philosophical when you’re acutely aware of all the horrible things going on around the world. I don’t know about you, but any time I want to sit and think about a subject that interests me, I find that my mind is swamped by the horrific images I’ve seen from atrocities going on around the world.
It’s difficult to daydream or analyze things when one is haunted.
Although it’s great that we can access news and information from around the world any time we want to, that doesn’t mean it’s healthy for us to do so. The use of antidepressant and anti-anxiety medication worldwide has skyrocketed in recent years due to a number of different factors, but it is undoubtedly influenced by our nonstop access to atrocities. This collective trauma seeps into every aspect of day-to-day existence, and that includes our ability to think about anything other than imminent global destruction.
Final thoughts…
If this article has helped you to identify the things in your world that are preventing you from thinking deeply, consider reducing their impact on your daily life. Limit the amount of time you spend staring at screens, and take up journaling instead — especially in journals that offer writing prompts or ask personal questions for you to answer.
Descartes is famous for having written the phrase “I think, therefore I am” (Cogito, ergo sum), but if we aren’t able to think deeply anymore, what does that say about us as a species?
