The People Who Don't Want You to Sleep
Can't put your phone down? It's not you.
When former Google design ethicist Tristan Harris testified before the U.S. Senate in 2019, he explained why so many of us are perpetually distracted by our phones: “You can try having self-control, but there are a thousand engineers on the other side of the screen working against you.”
Ever since I read that quote in Johann Hari’s book, Stolen Focus, I’ve repeated it dozens of times to friends and family members.
I remember it late at night, when instead of selecting a book from the teetering stack on my nightstand, I take another roulette-wheel spin on Instagram, watching videos of strangers’ pets and babies. I know it’s not the best use of my time, but I worked hard all day and I’m tired and oh my lord it’s a goat and a duck who are best friends!
I think about it when friends with graduate degrees from Ivy League colleges tell me they barely have the attention span to read books or longform journalism anymore. Or when, instead of writing another paragraph or working through a complex idea, I reach for my phone and play a word game.
