Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention—and How to Think Deeply Again, by Johann Hari. Crown, 2022, 368 pages, $30.00.

Most Americans find it difficult to focus exclusively on one thing for more than a few minutes.  In fact, some readers of this review will perhaps find it difficult to finish without their attention being pulled elsewhere. What is the problem? Why are our attention spans so short? Why are we not able to focus for long periods of time? Researcher and journalist Johann Hari asks and answers these questions in his book Stolen Focus. Hari wrote this book because he, too, was struggling with a very short attention span. This book chronicles Hari’s research and gives some remedies along the way.

Stolen Focus has fourteen chapters—twelve of which give specific reasons why so many people are unable to focus.  I am not going to list them all, because I do not want to give too many spoilers. However, a few examples are worth sharing. For one example, in chapter three Hari argues that the rise of physical and mental exhaustion has caused our attention spans to shrink. Because people do not sleep or rest enough, their minds and bodies suffer. The result is that they are unable to focus well for long periods of time.  Little rest means little focus.

In chapter five Hari gives personal and scientific examples of how a lack of mind-wandering causes our attention spans to diminish. Hari notes that letting our minds wander and daydream is beneficial for overall mental health and the ability to focus.  When sounds and screens are not overstimulating our minds, we have time to mentally reflect, make connections in the world, and think ahead. This is true in my own experience. I have written many parts of my sermons when I run, walk, or hike without earbuds. Give your mind undistracted time to wander!

Chapters six and seven give another reason why it is difficult to focus: the rise of technology that tracks and manipulates users. In these chapters Hari summarizes various studies that show how most tech companies have a two-fold goal: to grab our attention and to make money. Those two are related, Hari writes. The longer our phones engage us, the more tech companies profit off us from ads and selling information about us they have mined from us. Big tech purposely designs phones and apps to distract us. The longer they keep us looking at the screen, the larger their profits grow. Our attention means their money.

One interesting aspect of Stolen Focus is Hari’s own experience. At one point he realized his attention span was so pathetic that he decided to undergo a digital detox: no smartphone or internet for two months. He weaves his story throughout the first chapter. If you have never heard of a digital detox, Hari’s story might fascinate you. A few years back I had a similar journey that included me ditching my iPhone for a flip phone that I am still using today. Fewer screens means fewer distractions.

Readers of Ordained Servant should note that Stolen Focus is not a Christian book. I did not agree with everything in it. Some parts of it are less helpful than others. At the same time, overall, I found it incredibly valuable. Much information in this book is very applicable to all Christians because we certainly need the ability to focus when reading and meditating on God’s Word, hearing it preached, and praying to him. And for those in Christian ministry, it is also extremely important to be able to study Scripture for long periods of time without constantly being distracted. If you are frustrated with your lack of ability to focus, I would very much recommend this book. Stolen Focus will help you understand the causes of your inability to focus and give you some ways to improve it.  Your attention span is extremely important. Do not let it disappear!

Shane Lems serves as pastor of Covenant Presbyterian Church (OPC) in Hammond, Wisconsin.

Ordained Servant Online, January, 2025.