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A review by getbeaned
The Attention Fix: How to Focus in a World That Wants to Distract You by Anders Hansen
informative
medium-paced
3.0
If you've read any self-help book regarding attention and concentration within the last decade or so, much of what's said here won't be new to you: Exercise at least 2 hours a week for brain health, reduce (or eliminate entirely) social media usage, be wary of your smartphone habits, do not multitask.
This is fine, as everyone needs to start somewhere, and as a starting off point, The Attention Fix is pretty good. It's brisk and simple, yet backed by research and information of the fundamentals.
That's said, I do have a handful of serious reservations about some of the choices made in the book. For starters, it lacks in text citations, which makes reading the relevant study's unnecessarily difficult. On that same note, the book steadily feels like it's just throwing study conclusions at you. Particularly in the chapters regarding social media and young people, many study's are referenced, but only on a surface level.
Outside of this, I'm a bit concerned by Hansen's narrative regarding actual fixes for poor attention and the more broader ailments of depression and anxiety. Essentially, I think he identifies potential reasons for why our ability to concentrate has diminished the last few decades - often referencing our hunter gather brains which haven't evolved to our newish way of life - but his supposed fixes are sometimes a bit too broad. Yes, everyone could do with some exercise and reduced social media use, but you get a general sense that he believes this is the "ultimate" fix for everything.
He acknowledges how antidepressants for example are a valid method of treatment, but in reference to rising numbers of people being diagnosed with mental illnesses, he uncharacteristically bases this on how he feels rathe than other potential reasons. For example, he again identifies how stress, anxiety, and even depression were potentially useful responses by the brain to our environment in deadlier times, but in response to rising prevalence to these today, which are most likely caused by a crumbling economic system and societal unrest, he's pretty much silent.
It's most seen when correctly identifying social media as an individual ill due to how they prey on our dopamine receptors to keep us addicted and thus erode out abilities to think properly. He doesn't however identify that social media has exposed people to wider issues, issues like what I just mentioned, along with global wars and injustices which can make them feel hopeless. Essentially, social media isn't really the issue here. What it exposes is in that regard
This is fine, as everyone needs to start somewhere, and as a starting off point, The Attention Fix is pretty good. It's brisk and simple, yet backed by research and information of the fundamentals.
That's said, I do have a handful of serious reservations about some of the choices made in the book. For starters, it lacks in text citations, which makes reading the relevant study's unnecessarily difficult. On that same note, the book steadily feels like it's just throwing study conclusions at you. Particularly in the chapters regarding social media and young people, many study's are referenced, but only on a surface level.
Outside of this, I'm a bit concerned by Hansen's narrative regarding actual fixes for poor attention and the more broader ailments of depression and anxiety. Essentially, I think he identifies potential reasons for why our ability to concentrate has diminished the last few decades - often referencing our hunter gather brains which haven't evolved to our newish way of life - but his supposed fixes are sometimes a bit too broad. Yes, everyone could do with some exercise and reduced social media use, but you get a general sense that he believes this is the "ultimate" fix for everything.
He acknowledges how antidepressants for example are a valid method of treatment, but in reference to rising numbers of people being diagnosed with mental illnesses, he uncharacteristically bases this on how he feels rathe than other potential reasons. For example, he again identifies how stress, anxiety, and even depression were potentially useful responses by the brain to our environment in deadlier times, but in response to rising prevalence to these today, which are most likely caused by a crumbling economic system and societal unrest, he's pretty much silent.
It's most seen when correctly identifying social media as an individual ill due to how they prey on our dopamine receptors to keep us addicted and thus erode out abilities to think properly. He doesn't however identify that social media has exposed people to wider issues, issues like what I just mentioned, along with global wars and injustices which can make them feel hopeless. Essentially, social media isn't really the issue here. What it exposes is in that regard