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> Either you have agency or you don't. Or maybe it's on a scale, where you can do various things to protect yourself, but those require time and energy which are not unlimited. Things such as no TV -- I would also say no social networks on a phone, ever! -- are obviously good. It is easy to reduce a distraction of something if you can eliminate it from your life completely, without any significant cost. It's like, when you want to get rid of alcoholism, it is easier to avoid pubs completely, rather than trying to regulate how much you consume. Problem is when you cannot avoid some situations completely. Turning off the internet, forever, would have a negative impact on many people's jobs. And there is a lot of distraction even on Stack Exchange -- if I am looking at an answer of a technical question, why is it also necessary to be notified about hot questions about movies, video games, politics, etc.? (On my home computer, I could install a blocker, but that already requires some skills that many people don't have. On my employer's computer, I am not even allowed to install browser plugins, for security reasons.) It is an arms race. As people learn to turn off some forms of distraction, experts keep inventing more intrusive ones. |