Worklife with Adam Grant ReThinking: The truth about the attention crisis with historian Daniel Immerwahr
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Jul 29, 2025 
Daniel Immerwahr, a history professor at Northwestern University and award-winning author, dives deep into the myths surrounding attention spans in the digital age. He challenges the notion that technology is shrinking our focus, instead suggesting it's the objects of our attention that are changing. Immerwahr discusses historical moral panics over distractions, compares the cognitive benefits of video games to traditional forms of art, and questions the cultural value of Marvel movies, sparking a captivating conversation about engagement and creativity.
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Distraction and Obsession Coexist
- The age of distraction is paradoxically also an age of obsession, with people paying deep attention within niche interests.
- Technology sorts us into microtribes where attentiveness is intense rather than lacking.
19th Century Fear of Stoves
- Nathaniel Hawthorne compared fear of cell phones to 19th-century worries about new technology like stoves.
- He lamented loss of community interaction around the hearth, akin to concerns about modern devices disrupting connection.
Attention Span is Task-Specific
- Attention span is task-dependent, not a fixed cognitive capacity.
- Measuring 'attention spans' is flawed because it varies with task interest and type, like video games versus tests.
