How to Break Up With Your Phone

when we train our attention on our phones, we miss out on everything else going on around us – and if you don’t have an experience to begin with, then it goes without saying that you’re not going to remember it later. What’s more, when we overload our working memories, we make it harder for our brains to transfer new information to our long-term me

And just like time, once we’ve spent attention, we can never get it back.

IN THE PAST, if a person described herself as feeling happy, sad, excited, anxious, curious, frustrated, ignored, important, lonely, joyful, and existentially depressed within the space of five minutes, she likely would have received a diagnosis. But give me five minutes on my phone, and I can accomplish this and more.

the more you’re able to draw connections between seemingly unconnected things, the more likely you are to have insights.

dopamine-induced excitement is not the same thing as actual happiness.

One thought triggers another thought, which triggers another . . . and suddenly, you’ve had a breakthrough.

if you wanted to invent a device that could rewire our minds, if you wanted to create a society of people who were perpetually distracted, isolated, and overtired, if you wanted to weaken our memories and damage our capacity for focus and deep thought, if you wanted to reduce empathy, encourage self-absorption, and redraw the lines of social etique

designers manipulate our brain chemistry in ways that are known to trigger addictive behaviours.

an intensely focused state of distraction.