You might think that you and others are distracted by your screens, but that is not quite correct. Distraction is not the right diagnosis. Attention loss is a surface symptom, but not the disease most of us have now.
The real disease, and the true danger, is that our screens have replaced judgment, and that judgment has been outsourced. It is important to be informed, which can only happen if you do your homework.
We did not lose focus. We surrendered discernment.
From Tool to Psychological Crutch
The next time you go to a restaurant, any restaurant, count the number of phones on the table, being held, or being shared with the person sitting next to them. A newborn baby is not picked up as often as the screen, the most carried object in modern life.
Many of us suffer anxiety when separated from our screens. Have you ever gotten in your car and stopped the car to retrieve the screen you forgot to take with you. God help you if you lose your precious screen. You may need a doctor, a psychologist preferably.
I went to Tibet some time ago. Outside the monastery, the Buddhist monks pulled out their phones about as often as we do. I cannot imagine how one should find enlightenment in a screen. Our constant companion seems to be some kind of regulator of comfort. Some people find silence intolerable.
Look around, and you will find that almost everyone is holding a screen in their hand and is unable to sit with their own thoughts.
Information Without Filtration
Social media is a universal publishing platform, allowing anyone to find something to entertain them, enrage them politically, or compare themselves to others. I am an expert in B2B sales, business, and 70s and 80s rock and roll and a writer. Outside of these few things, I may not know the answer to a question.
There is a total collapse of gatekeeping and credentialing. Many people continue to masquerade as something they are not. When an influencer tells you they found something that made them rich, you need to know that the influencer often gets rich by selling the story and taking your money.
It is important to know that confidence is not competence. There is also a difference between expertise and visibility. Unfiltered information undermines judgment. Education is greater than opinion because the person did the work to earn a perspective. Just because someone looks the part is not evidence that they are who they are. Experience matters, especially when one can prove results. Engagement feels good, but it does not always provide proof.
Authority tends to have assets, like published books, hundreds of YouTube videos, or thousands of articles. Popularity can cause someone to believe they are competent simply because they look the part.
The Restaurant Test
Go into any restaurant, pick any table, and count the number of phones on the table, or one or two people sharing what is on their screen. The phone on the table is a cultural signal. Screens make presence conditional and revocable. Tables with phones on them erode human attention.
The black screen always has a standing invitation to disengage from the humans who hoped to get another person’s attention. Even in your bed, your screen might as well be Las Vegas, as it is ruining your sleep. This says something about our problem with sitting still. Even in leisure, you are certain to be interrupted by a ring, a ding, or some other alert, all given to you by a screen.
The Moral Cost of Outsourced Discernment
Judgment is a moral function, not just a cognitive one. The relationship between discernment and responsibility has weakened accountability. Outsourcing judgment weakens accountability when you are making decisions. Instagram, Meta, and YouTube are the product when you are on your screens. Adults now speak with borrowed certainty from what they found on their screen, which causes reaction without the energy for reflection.
When judgment disappears, responsibility soon follows.
What We Lost and What Must Be Reclaimed
In my first book, The Only Sales Guide You’ll Need, the first strategy was Self-Discipline. Judgment is also a discipline, not an instinct. We need to look back to our standards and pause, if you can. Wisdom should not come crowdsourced. You and I will need to filter everything that shows up on the screen. A society that cannot judge will eventually accept whatever appears on its screen.
Anyone who is paying attention is likely to notice how much of what appears on screens is a scam, like the two people who told me that if I did not give them a code, I would lose my money. To prove they worked for Coinbase, they offered to show me the Coinbase logo on their shirts. I kept them on the phone for hours until their leader asked me how much I had in my wallet. I told him I had $290 dollars, which I did not have, and he hung up.
Our screens are going to be with us, but we can refuse to use them or use them rarely.
