Cal Newport: On Attention in an Age of Digital Distraction

Cal Newport: On Attention in an Age of Digital Distraction
The digital minimalists Newport interviewed had felt they were losing their autonomy and time to their devices. They redirected their energy to pursuits that mattered to them. Shutterstock
Catherine Yang
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Only a few years ago, Cal Newport’s ideas about digital distraction and social media made him an outlier. He was a millennial who read a print newspaper and never had a social media account, during a time when every small business was starting, if not an account, a whole department.

And even though no one could give Newport a compelling argument for using social media, they asked without a hint of irony, but what if by not having an account, he missed out on a potential opportunity?