The Great Acceleration

Everything’s getting faster, but at what cost? All this information is from journalist/writer Johann Hari's book STOLEN FOCUS and I’ll be sharing more mind-blowing things I learned from that book, so subscribe and stick around. #TheGreatAcceleration #Acceleration #StolenFocus #Attention #JohannHari #Mindfulness #Meditation #SlowLiving #MentalHealth #Focus __ VD: Leila, an Asian woman, sits cross-legged on a white couch with two chihuahuas at her side TRANSCRIPT Did you know that we are living in “the Great Acceleration”? Everything is getting faster. It’s not just our technology. People talk significantly faster now than we did in the 1950s, and in the past 20 years people have started to walk 10 percent faster in cities. In fact, I usually speed up my videos by 3%, I change up my shots, and I limit my videos up to 90 seconds to keep your focus. However, if you’d like to absorb this information more deeply, subscribe to my YouTube channel where this video is at normal speed and is in full length. Comment “YouTube” and I’ll DM you my channel. Now, back to accelerating! Acceleration is usually considered something to celebrate. Internally at Google, the unofficial motto among the staff was, “If you’re not fast, you’re fucked.” However, scientists have been studying how this acceleration is actually affecting our brains– or more specifically, our attention. They studied what happens when we deliberately slow down. For example, yoga, or tai chi, or meditation… The research showed that slowing down significantly improves our ability to pay attention, stay focused, and it improves our performance. Why? Our human cognitive bandwidth has a limitation and if we go too fast, process too much information, we will have to compress to the point our performance ability degrades. When we slow down, we stretch each action and they become deeper and more meaningful. One of the leading experts on this topic, a professor named Guy Claxton, said, “But when you practice moving at a speed that is compatible with human nature—and you build that into your daily life—you begin to train your attention and focus. ‘That’s why those disciplines make you smarter. It’s not about humming or wearing orange robes.’ Slowness, he explained, nurtures attention, and speed shatters it.” All this information is from journalist Johann Hari’s book “Stolen Focus”. I will be sharing more things that blew my mind from Hari’s book. If you’d like to learn more, hit “Subscribe”. See you net time.