Lately, I’ve been listening to an interesting book called Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention—and How To Think Deeply Again by Johann Hari. My friend Erin recommended it to me while we were lunching last week and talking about social media exhaustion and the like. I’m not quite finished with it, but it has been a thought-provoking read.
The first half of the book covers many of the ways we’ve inadvertently trained our brains not to focus. Our lives move quickly, and we are multitasking ourselves to distraction. We find it difficult to lock into flow states in our work, and many of us—me included—now have trouble focusing enough for sustained reading sessions. The internet has taught us to skim through stories and jump from subject to subject and task to task quickly and without a lot of thought.
As I was listening to Stolen Focus last weekend while I was painting Abby’s bedroom in the Brevard house—yes, I understand the irony of multitasking while listening to a book about focus—I thought back to an essay I wrote in 2017 for my favorite now-defunct online publication Acculturated. It was a response to a Philip Yancey op-ed in The Washington Post titled, “The Death of Reading Is Threatening the Soul,” that lamented social media’s impact on our ability to read deeply and with focus. It covers many of the same themes, and I thought I would share it with you again. You can find Yancey’s original op-ed here. It’s definitely worth a read as well.
The Death of Reading
I read Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis for the first time last December. A lifelong Christian and Narnia superfan, I’m late to the party, I know. But as the dust settled from an election that shined a glaring spotlight on our cultural divisions — political, social, economic, theological — I was feeling out of sorts. Christian leaders I respected as well as people close to me who had helped shape my own faith were on the other side of the divide, and I needed a touchstone, something to help reorient me in the foundations of the faith, so I could move forward. I reached out to one of the great Christian thinkers of the twentieth century and found the solace I needed in his book.
This is the power of books. They let us escape, try on new points of view, and explore what it means to be human. The great works give readers a shared experience and a shorthand for big ideas. Describing something as Orwellian is a big hit lately, if you haven’t noticed. We return to old favorites again and again when we need the familiarity of a trusted friend. Books can heal the spirit and soothe the soul like nothing else can.
In her lovely bestselling book, The Little Paris Bookshop, Nina George explores the healing power of books. She tells the story of Jean Perdu, a bookseller who has a knack for uncovering just the right book to heal whatever is ailing his customers. He is so good at dispensing bookish remedies a local therapist sends patients to his bookshop, the Literary Apothecary, with a “prescription” for their literary needs. One person might be described as “Kafkaesque with a touch of Pynchon” and another as “a splendid example of Potter-under-the-stairs syndrome.” Perdu can always find just the right book to soothe anxiety or help mend a broken heart.
Literature can be a healing agent. Unfortunately, Americans are reading less today than they have in the past. Philip Yancey lamented our shift away from reading and toward digital distractions in a recent Washington Post op-ed, “The Death of Reading Is Threatening the Soul.” Technology and social media have combined to retrain our brains to graze along the surface of information rather than hone our concentration to delve deeply into meatier content. Neuroscientists tell us finding new and interesting information gives our brains a little dopamine hit, and, like lab rats, we keep clicking those web links to keep that happiness hormone flowing. The average American spends ten hours per day getting their media fix.
I am as guilty as anyone else is. A “quick” look at Twitter turns into thirty minutes or more of following links through articles across the web. I can’t remember the last time I got truly lost in a book where hours passed without me noticing. Where I once devoured books, I now “take a break” after each chapter or two to see what’s happening on Twitter. Five minutes turns into ten, and then, well, it’s time to put the book down and make dinner.
Our time online is not making us happier either. The more we use social media sites like Facebook the less happy we are. Looking at our friends’ carefully curated online lives leaves us with a sense that maybe our lives aren’t so great in comparison, plus the time we spend on our devices takes away from the face-to-face interactions we need to build a strong social network. We know our time online is making us unhappy, but we still struggle to kick the habit.
We need to find our way back to the deep, focused reading so many of us enjoyed in the past. “Commitment to reading is an ongoing battle,” Yancey declares. “We have to build a fortress with walls strong enough to withstand the temptations of that powerful dopamine rush while also providing shelter for an environment that allows deep reading to flourish.” In an age of information overload, we could use the soothing balm of a good piece of literature. Perhaps the prescription we need is to tune out digital distractions and pick up a book. I’m making a commitment to myself to carve out more time for distraction-free, focused reading. I hope you will too.
When I first thought about this article, I had forgotten it started with a C.S. Lewis lede. Every now and then I need to get back to the foundations of the Christian faith, so I’m revisiting Mere Christianity this year during Lent, which started this week. If you are unfamiliar with the book, it is a compilation of a series of radio addresses Lewis gave in Great Britain during World War II. This time, I’m listening to it on Audiobook in part because Daniel has taken my copy with him to school but mostly because I’d like to experience it in its original spoken form. The thing I love most about the book is it intentionally strips out denominational dogma to get to the heart of what it means to be a part of the Christian faith. If you’d like to join me in this Lenten reading, we can have a read-along to go with our temperature blanket knit-along.
As I write this, it is 81 degrees outside in the ATL. On Ash Wednesday. In February. Jackson (the dog) and I have already been on a walk and will likely take another one today to soak in this beautiful weather before winter rolls back in. I hope you have been able to enjoy this lovely break in the winter gloom wherever you are.
Until next time,
Karla
Glad the book has had an impact! It is a daily struggle for me to stay connected in my personal and business life without getting sucked into the SM vortex. The discipline of setting boundaries is the best solution so far.
OMG Karla I thought it was just me! I’ve been agonizing over that fact that I keep picking up books to read but then lose interest and look for another one. And I also don’t read for a sustained amount of time like I used to. CS Lewis isn’t really up my alley ( being Jewish and all 😉) but count me in if you ever want to do a read along or book club! 😊