From #BookTok to 'mindwandering': 5 new books for the social media age
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Stolen Focus: Why You Can't Pay Attention argues that the world is facing an attention crisis.
PHOTO: AFP
SINGAPORE - Addicted to social media? Curious about what's trending on #BookTok? Check out Johann Hari's new book Stolen Focus, Jennifer Egan's novel on social networks and more.
#BookTok authors riding the wave
During the pandemic, E. Lockhart's 2014 young adult thriller We Were Liars exploded in popularity.
Why did this story of a wealthy American family who spend its summers on a private island resurface on bestseller lists years after its publication?
A big reason was TikTok.
Cannot focus? You are not alone
Several years ago, British author Johann Hari set off for Provincetown, Massachusetts, and spent three months in a small cabin by the beach without a smartphone.
His goal - to go on a digital detox and reclaim his ability to focus and think deeply.
For a while, it worked. But months after the trip, smartphone back in hand, he slipped into distraction again.
Hari, 43, used to blame himself for being too undisciplined to focus, but later found there were larger environmental factors that were harming his attention.
He addresses these issues in his latest book, Stolen Focus: Why You Can't Pay Attention, which argues that people have been finding it harder to focus, and that the world is facing an attention crisis.
"Your attention didn't collapse - your attention has been stolen from you by some very powerful forces."
Food for thought for wandering minds in the digital age.
PHOTOS: BLOOMSBURY
Mindwandering can take you places
The human brain is often noisy.
And if you find yourself being unable to concentrate on the task at hand, it is almost always due to your mood. This, in turn, affects the state of your mind, which is by nature prone to wandering.
Neuroscientist Moshe Bar's book Mindwandering makes the case that letting your mind drift - an involuntary activity that takes up about half of one's waking time - is not necessarily always bad.
'Never trust a candy house'
In the early days of the Internet, an anthropologist called Miranda Kline publishes a slender monograph containing algorithms drawn from her study of a secluded Brazilian tribe.
Titled Patterns Of Affinity, it contains algorithms that predict trust and influence. These are appropriated by social media companies, who use them to conquer the world.
American author Egan, last seen plumbing the past for her excellent historical novel Manhattan Beach (2017), has now returned to an exciting and uneasy future.
Here, memories can be digitally uploaded to a collective consciousness and accessed by others. Some people, whether for work or as a life choice, have devices called weevils implanted in their brains, which record their every thought.
