Andrew MacDougall, Toronto Star contributor, writes a thought provoking article about how technology is eroding our brains.
The article explains that the speed of technology and it delivery of truncated information conditions our brains to deal with small chunks of information for increasingly shorter moments. Our brains become conditioned to that kind of information input which in turn conditions them to think less and deal with ever smaller bits of information.
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The smartphone is destroying people’s capacity and willingness to think, politicians included
Andrew MacDougall (former communications director to Stephen Harper) argues that the attention economy isn’t just shrinking our ability to focus — it’s actively degrading how democracies are governed. In other words, smart phones are eroding our capability and willingness to use our brains.
Decline of deep attention
- Reading for pleasure is falling across the board, and some kids now arrive at school without the fine motor skills to hold a pencil.
- Face-to-face conversation is declining as screens absorb more of the day.
- The generation raised on smartphones shows higher rates of anxiety and poor mental health, linked to social media’s design.
- Short-form content as in TV newscasts is associated with reduced attention spans and weaker memory retention; AI now adds the temptation to outsource thinking itself.
The real problem: how technology is used
- MacDougall says the issue isn’t technology itself but the attention economy’s business model: platforms only profit when users stay active, so they’re built to reward sensational, emotional content over truth.
- A lie spreads faster than a fact; celebrity gossip beats a school board story. This “information pollution” crowds out the stillness needed for deep thinking.
Government is being hollowed out
- He contrasts his own PCO memo-reading days (paper-based, distraction-free) with today, where WhatsApp and social media now run governments in real time.
- Democratic institutions were built for the slower pace of print; they aren’t designed to function at internet speed.
- Complex governance can’t be explained in 30-second reels — politics is increasingly reduced to tactical reactions rather than long-term strategy.
- Social media rewards preaching to the converted over cross-party consensus, entrenching polarization and tying politics to identity.
Journalism’s weakened challenge function
- Newspapers and broadcasters once gave citizens a shared, editorially accountable “focal point” for information, and their ad revenue (crosswords, classifieds, etc.) subsidized accountability journalism.
- That revenue has shifted to tech platforms, starving newsrooms just as their scrutiny of power is needed most.
- Politicians can now bypass the media entirely, going “direct-to-market” via social media — making it easier to lie and harder to be held accountable (he cites Trump as an example).
The burden on ordinary citizens
- The attention economy forces people to sift real from fake information themselves, but human brains rely on cognitive shortcuts (per Daniel Kahneman) that platforms exploit to reinforce confirmation bias.
- Smartphones bundle endless entertainment and social contact into one addictive device — not, in his view, a healthy conduit for democracy.
His proposed way out
- Individuals should reclaim their attention by putting phones down, since attention spent cheaply on platforms isn’t available for parenting, work, or civic life.
- Governments should regulate tech companies so they can’t keep monetizing attention while offloading the social costs.
- His closing line: politics can survive on memes, but government can’t — and he hopes officials are still writing (and reading) the “long memos” needed to govern well.
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