TJ Walker argues that distraction isn't a personal failing but a feature of platforms designed to fragment your attention. He describes the compulsive cycle of checking phones and jumping between notifications, citing Cal Newport's work to show the problem is systemic, not a lack of discipline.
We are essentially chain-smoking distraction all day, every day. You wake up, you check your phone, you scroll, you get a little dopamine hit, you jump to email, you jump to text, you jump to news, you jump to video, you jump to something else. You're essentially doing mental gymnastics if gymnastics involved never finishing a single move. And then we blame ourselves. I just don't have discipline. No, you're in an environment that has been engineered to destroy your discipline. This is one of Newport's most important points. Ultimize.
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