Last week’s Literacy Links referred to a book by Johann Hari entitled Stolen Focus – a powerfully argued exploration of the breakdown of our contemporary world’s ability to pay attention. In Stolen Focus, Hari reflects on the messages we absorb from social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, and compares it to the message that we absorb from books. His thoughts are worth considering.

What is Twitter’s message? First: that you shouldn’t focus on any one thing for too long and that the world can and should be understood in short, simple statements of 280 characters. Second: the world should be interpreted and understood very quickly. Third: what matters most is whether people immediately agree with and applaud your short, simple statements. What is Facebook’s message? According to Hari, Facebook’s message appears to be first: your life exists to be displayed to others, and you should be aiming to show your friends strategically edited highlights. Second: what matters is whether people immediately like these edited and carefully selected highlights. And third: someone is your ‘friend’ if you regularly look at their edited highlights, and they in turn look at yours. What is Instagram’s message? First: what matters is how you look on the outside. And second: what matters is whether people like how you look on the outside.

One of the key reasons why social media makes Hari feel ‘out of joint with the world’ and with himself, is that the ideas – the messages implicit in these social media sites – are problematic. In relation to Twitter, the world is actually quite complex. To be a thinking and reflective human being you need to be able to focus on one thing for a significant amount of time, and you need space to ‘speak’ at length when the issue requires it. Very few things worth saying can be captured in 280 characters.  If your response to an idea is immediate, it may be shallow and ill-considered. And whether people agree immediately with you is no indication as to whether you have something valuable to say. The same can be said for Instagram and Facebook. To think that life is merely about beautiful exteriors is a recipe for unhappiness. And true friendship actually requires commitment, sacrifice, and time to flourish.

Hari then considers the messages buried in the pile of books leaning up against the wall of his beach house. Before the words convey their specific meaning, the medium of the book suggests several things. Firstly, life is complex, and if you want to understand it, you have to set aside a significant amount of time to think deeply. Secondly, there is value in narrowing your attention to one thing, sentence after sentence, page after page. Thirdly, it is worth thinking deeply about how other people live and how their minds work. ‘They have complex inner lives just like you.’ Hari most definitely agrees with the messages in the medium of the book. He thinks they encourage the best parts of human nature – that a life with lots of episodes of deep focus is a good life. And this is why reading books ‘nourishes’ him.