This piece from The Guardian was the best article I read last week. It makes a compelling case that we are collectively giving away our most precious commodity, our time, in order to generate untold riches for certain large companies.
There are lots of good books on this topic but the best one I’ve read is Digital Minimalism, which provides a concrete, practical “digital decluttering” plan and some proven ways to regain control over your time and attention. If you’ve ever struggled with the amount of time you spend scrolling social media and news sites, obsessively checking your timeline for likes, or noticed how often you reflexively grab your phone, this is the book for you.
The article below provides a short summary of the problem. For those inclined to dive deeper, Digital Minimalism provides a more complete explanation of what’s happening to us and, more importantly, a prescription for taking back control of your life.
The solution is not to avoid technology - it’s to manage digital tools intelligently in order to improve the quality of your time, rather than letting tech companies manage you in order to improve the quality of their profits.
Your attention didn’t collapse. It was stolen