Stolen Focus, by Johann Hari (2022)

Stolen Focus explores the modern factors that impact our attention spans. With a very human touch, Johann Hari presents a book that weaves in his own experiences, interviews with experts, and the most seductive modern research on the topic.

Stolen Focus is anchored by Hari’s own battles with improving his attention by tracking the author’s three month escape from technology in an American coastal town. In each chapter Hari’s experiences during his technological retreat are used as a springboard to explore different behavioural and environmental factors that impact our attention.

As the book progresses though the factors explored in each chapter grow in scope. Early topics like sleep and exercise describe impacts to personal behaviour but Hari goes onto explore societal factors such as corporate incentives and even environmental factors like pollution which impact our attention. The growing stature of the issues the book explores induces panic and anxiety as Hari’s writing ultimately unravels into a warning rather than a self-help book readers may have been inclined to expect.

Unfortunately though, as the scope of the book widens, Hari’s writing suffers from growing pains, leaning into sensationalist comparisons and panic inducing deductions. As the book increasingly dips into commentary on capitalism and climate change, the content’s call to improve attention can be overshadowed by the writer’s pleas for attention. In a similar vein, as the topics grow in scope the exploration of them becomes more shallow.

Hari disclaims early in the book that he is not a scientist, but equally he makes assurances that his research is rigorous and unbiased, however as the book moved to less understood topics including alternative education Hari’s examples begins to feel selective and almost pseudoscientific. Hari is not a scientist, but he is a charming and captivating writer who is exploring interesting topics. Even at its most suspect, Stolen Focus presents interesting and plausible discussion, perhaps the greatest fault of Hari’s is trying to capture in a chapter topics that require a whole book themselves.

I appreciated that the book showed society’s attention has in fact gotten worse and I also appreciated how the book explored the societal and environmental factors somewhat outside of our control. Stolen Focus is not self-help book but it does invite us to consider how and where we live our lives.