I wonder if you have ever seen the film Koyaanisqatsi1 directed by Godfrey Reggio and released in 1983. Koyaanisqatsi is a Hopi Indian word which means crazy life, or life out of balance or life in turmoil. A disintegrating life or life that calls for another way of living. The film is set to a mesmerising score by Philip Glass and is without words. Starting from a place of natural beauty building up in a series of images and increasing in pace as we move deeper into town and city life. Remember this film was made nearly 40 years ago now and in this respect it is prescient about the speed our lives are lived at now, the complexity, the distractedness.
About a month ago I read Johan Haari’s book Stolen Focus. It blew me away. In his book he explores how research has shown the average adult stays focused on a task for only three minutes, for young people that goes down to sixty five seconds. We are accelerating and being fed information beyond what our brain can manage and our resources for attention are exhausted. We are reading less, we are talking faster and even walking faster. The original Blackberry slogan was ‘anything worth doing is worth doing faster’ and Googles unofficial motto is: ’if it’s not fast, you’re f****d’.
When our minds and bodies are asked to move this fast our ability to focus drops, we make more mistakes, creativity is stifled and we are left feeling frazzled. Add to this potent mix the fact that 40% of us are sleep deprived, which for children leads to hyperactivity and inability to pay attention.
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