Twenty years ago, Chuck Palahniuk published the short story "Guts," in which he challenged readers to hold their breaths for the duration of the time it took to read it. Now, I feel like I can't even go the length of a story without checking my email. As psychologist and researcher Gloria Mark notes her new book "Attention Span: A Groundbreaking Way to Restore Balance, Happiness and Productivity," "People's attention span on any screen in recent years has reached a steady state of about 47 seconds."
We have been conditioned for distraction: the ping of a text, the knock-knock of a Slack message, the itchy urge while doing one thing that we ought to be doing something else. We know that the churning desire to always be multitasking is not good for our brains, bodies or mental health. We also live in a world that is not going to slow down for us.
