Today, a short look at a BBC article claiming that the modern world is making everything too easy. Yes, really.
It is, of course, all about the age-old argument as to whether making things easier makes us stupider. There's a fair point to be made for "use it for lose it", but the question should really be about when and whether skill atrophy actually matters. There's no point worrying that your driving abilities will degrade if you switch entirely to public transport, and so long as you can guarantee your new option is reliable and available, there seems no point at all in bemoaning this (I've covered this issue before, of course). Indeed, the switch should be the whole goal. That's how progress is supposed to work, or it wouldn't be progress at all.
Likewise, the ancient Greeks believed that warm showers would make them weak and effeminate, whereas most modern people would say that cold showers just make them miserable rather than toughening them up. There are more than enough other issues to deal with without also having to suffer needlessly. I believe we generally do better when our basic needs are met rather than having to struggle for them : I prefer to live in Star Trek's comfortable, scientific Federation rather than with Dune's tough, religiously fanatical Fremen. Struggle should be reserved for the things you want, not the things you need.
Still, there is a case to be made that it would be a Bad Thing if your overall intelligence started decreasing because you stopped trying to think for yourself. You do need to actually engage your brain, and all skills are maintained by continuously operating near their peak levels. What I struggle to see is how it's ever possible (except maybe if you're far too rich) to make your life such utterly comfortable, so devoid of any challenge whatsoever, that this ever becomes of any actual concern to anyone at all.
While modern technology can streamline day-to-day life, making everything from dating to food delivery more efficient, it may come at a cost: early data suggests that our attention span may be shortening, critical thinking capabilities weakening, emotional intelligence fading, and spatial memory getting worse as we offload human tasks to our devices. The technological optimisation doesn't seem to be making us happier, either: despite the continual digital assists and enhanced communication of social networks, people still report high levels of stress and loneliness.
Yeah, but that's a lot of social media ends up with interactions with people we'd never want to engage with in real life. You then have to spend ages dealing with stupid people under the dubious grounds that you'll otherwise end up in an echo chamber*. This is partly because most people are, in fact, very stupid, and partly due to algorithmic rage-bait manipulation.
* This apparently being something unique to social media : of course, you can walk away from morons in real life, but online we're expected to deal with them calmly and rationally and take them very seriously for some reason.
That's why a growing number of people are restoring to the hottest new trend: "friction-maxxing", or rebuilding tolerance for inconveniences. The idea is to find tasks or ways of doing things involve a level of difficulty, time or patience. This could, for example, involve going "old school" and swapping digital tech tools for analogue solutions, such as reading rather than watching YouTube, navigating by road signs in place of Google Maps or calling a friend for advice instead of consulting ChatGPT.
But our brains operate on a "use it or lose it" principle, says Mark. Experiments in animal models show that effortful learning keeps new neurons in the brain alive. Studies also show that cognitively-stimulating activities like learning an instrument, reading, playing games and doing puzzles can preserve cognitive function as we age.
I don't get it. Who is finding their life so convenient that they miss the difficulties ? More importantly, HOW CAN I BECOME ONE OF THESE PEOPLE ? I find that one incomprehensibly weird. How are you not just exchanging one set of difficulties for another ? For example, if I no longer have to worry about how to write the code, I simply have more time for thinking about the problem I wanted to solve in the first place. I can't imagine ever reaching the end of the chain, as it were. Yes, it's good to have some amount of very low-level technical knowledge (some degree of grit for the mill, I guess), but I can't imagine who's living in such a utopia that they've already reached a state of post-scarcity difficulties. I'm a lot happier, not stupider, if I don't have to deal with segmentation faults.
According to one band of experts, the features of our digitised existence – constant notifications, 24-hour news and endless social feeds – can hijack this attention system, resulting in cognitive overload, mental fatigue and trouble focusing.
Much like the research on the effects of technology on our mental capacities, the studies of digital detoxes show mixed results. Some breaks from technology lead to better mood, improved focus, lower stress and more social connectedness, while others show the opposite or null effects. One 2014 study found that restricting screen time at a five-day nature camp improved preteens' emotional and social intelligence, while another 2019 study of university students found an increase in loneliness after abstaining from social media for one week.
Now that one makes a lot more sense. I can definitely see problems with "everything devices", like phones : I have a tendency to stockpile stuff for later consumption rather than immediately reading what interests me; I definitely fall into the infinite scrolling trap.
As per a quite different recent post, this is not necessarily a bad thing. Indeed, to a degree I even welcome distractions of my own choosing. I find it helps keep my focus maintained for longer overall if I split it up into chunks, every so often checking something very simple (like a news feed or social media) that doesn't derail my train of thought. Usually, this sort of back-and-forth doesn't become a problem when working, but I'm as guilty as anyone of scrolling on my phone rather than actually watching TV. Especially if I'm watching a show on my computer... the temptation to just quickly check the feed again is, for whatever reason, quite hard to resist.
But to me this not a technological issue, it's a design choice. I love my digital notebook because it's total lack of features mean I use it for writing notes and reading long web articles, and that's it. Single purpose items, be they digital or otherwise, innately demand more attention because you can't just flick a button for more content. Moreover, so long as I put my phone away, I'm not tempted to go and check it. A single purpose device doesn't feel boring : once you're given something to do, and nothing to distract you from it, you'll just do that thing instead of trying to do dozens of things at once. Printed books do this, but so do well-designed digital products.
But even if friction-maxxing isn't the end-all solution we've been waiting for, "it doesn't hurt", says Mark. "If people are putting in effort, it makes them more intentional and thoughtful." Analogue hobbies such as crafting, gardening or reading – which involve friction as opposed to scrolling or streaming – can act as "active meditation", calming the mind and reducing stress. One 2024 study of more than 7,000 adults living in England found that those who engaged in crafting or the creative arts were more likely to report significantly higher life satisfaction, a greater sense that life is worthwhile and increased happiness.
"I realised that a good life isn't an easy life," Semple says. "There's an enjoyment that you're cheated out of when you take the easy route."
And this is fair. Most analogue activities are innately more focused because there are no equivalents of "everything devices" or constant notifications. Multi-functionality has its place, but it's not easy to stay to track with such things. The real difficulty is perhaps the web itself. It doesn't make any sense to have a separate physical device for every website or digital tool : some purposes, like photography, can easily and sensibly separated, but many others simply can't.
What's the solution ? Self discipline is part of it, but it's hardly the whole answer. On a totally different video, I liked the point that it's simply not fair to expect people to be able to resist something that's designed to capture their whole attention. So better designs are also needed, e.g. alternatives to infinite scrolling, more nuanced control of feeds, easy options to control which notifications come through and when (Gmail and DuoLingo, shut the fuck up already)... I don't think this would actually be difficult to do and it would cost exactly nothing.
The problem is getting corporations to see that making us engaged with more and more things but each for less and less time is, in the long term, a stupid metric to gauge product success, and that providing us with one good service is better than the option of a hundred crappy ones. How we reign in this tendency, I don't know.
