The Antidote to the Attention Crisis: Unplug Daily
Adam Grant recently shared something on X that stopped me mid-scroll:
“Bingeing TikTok reels may be hazardous to your well-being.
71 studies, >98k people: The more short-form videos teens and adults watched, the more they struggled with attention, self-control, and stress and anxiety.
Read a book. Watch a movie. Long live longform.”
Honestly… did we really need 71 studies to confirm this?
Every one of us has felt the effects. The foggy mind after scrolling. The shrinking attention span. The restless jumpiness that makes it harder to sit still with ourselves, let alone with another human being. We’ve normalized distraction so completely that calm can feel almost uncomfortable.
This is exactly why one of the core practices in The AI Antidote is simple but powerful: Unplug Daily.
Why Unplugging Matters Now More Than Ever
Short-form content isn’t just entertainment — it’s training the brain to chase novelty every few seconds. That means:
Less attention
More emotional reactivity
Lower self-control
More anxiety and stress
Less capacity for deep thinking, creativity, and intuition
In other words, the very qualities that make us human are being dulled by the endless drip of stimulation.
You can’t cultivate emotional intelligence, presence, or resilience while living in a state of permanent fragmentation.
The Antidote: Make Space for Your Actual Life
Unplugging isn’t about rejecting technology. It’s about reclaiming the parts of yourself that screens quietly erode when you’re not paying attention.
It looks like:
Reading a chapter of a book instead of watching 42 seconds of 42 videos.
Sitting outside with your morning coffee for three minutes of silence.
Taking a walk without a podcast.
Having one unhurried conversation with someone you love.
Letting your brain experience boredom long enough for creativity to appear.
These are tiny, human moments — and they matter more than we realize.
A Simple Challenge for This Week
Choose one 10–15 minute window each day to be completely screen-free.
No phone. No laptop. No background noise. No feed to scroll.
Just you — and the world you’re normally too busy to notice.
You may be surprised by how quickly your mind steadies, how much more spacious the day feels, and how different your nervous system becomes when it’s not constantly being yanked from one micro-stimulus to another.
This Is the Work of Being Human
We don’t need more studies to tell us that we’re overstimulated and undernourished.
We need to practice the antidotes — presence, quiet, nature, focus, real connection.
These aren’t luxuries. They’re requirements for a healthy mind and a meaningful life.
If this resonates, The AI Antidote offers ten practices to help you navigate a tech-driven world with more clarity, agency, and humanity. The Kindle version is available for preorder now, the paperback releases December 1, and we’ll be celebrating with a virtual gathering on December 15 (join the book launch).
Long live longform.
And long live the parts of you that only grow when the screen is finally off.