这封信的作者是Needham High School in Needham, Mass. 16 岁的Emma Hua，她是学生公开信大赛的前 10 名获胜者之一，我们收到了 9,946 份参赛作品。
Hey Screenager,
Look up for a second. No actually — just for a moment, I promise.
I know everything that you value is on that little glowing rectangle of yours: your friends, entertainment, news, and Block Blast. But have you not noticed how hard it is to focus? To enjoy a meal without your phone? How even a few seconds of boredom feel unbearable? How finishing a book for AP Lang last week felt like going to war?
Good and bad news. You’re not alone.
Last week, it hit me that I was completely tuned out in math class. I looked up, and the hieroglyphics on the board had been replaced with other lines of who-knows-what. Aside from the problem on the board, the real problem I couldn’t solve was I couldn’t get myself to focus. My mind wandered, my hands fidgeted, and my eyes darted around the room — it terrified me.
Our attention spans are shrinking. Now, with an 8-second attention span, shorter than a goldfish, you and I are wired for quick dopamine hits: short-form content, endless scrolling, a notification that Sophia commented “omg gorg” on your latest post. Dopamine hits? Sounds like something we half-listened to in health class — if you read any part of this letter, make it this: we are addicted. Deep thinking, reflection, and creativity are slipping away. Stuck on a math problem? ChatGPT. Need a makeup recommendation? Instagram. Want tips on breaking your phone addiction? YouTube. We’re losing the desire to wrestle with complex ideas, challenge ourselves intellectually, and most importantly, live presently. When those skills are lost, we lose what makes us truly unique and human.
The more we connect online, the more we are disconnecting as a society. Phones get chairs at the dinner table. Friendships are maintained through Snapchat streaks and Instagram reels. Eye contact feels awkward, and holding a long conversation feels burdensome. We are losing each other. In a generation that will soon be leading innovation, we are drowning in memorized TikTok dances instead of critical thinking and curiosity. Attention spans and discipline move humanity forward — what happens when an entire generation of people can’t focus for more than 8 seconds at a time?
Stay with me now, only one more paragraph. And here’s the thing: you still have time. You can still reclaim your focus and retrain your brain to engage in real life again. I cannot offer you a ten-step digital detox plan like the productivity influencers do on YouTube Shorts, but small steps — reading a book, setting screen limits, taking out the AirPods, and being present during meals — will give us a fighting chance of rectifying the screenager epidemic. Slowly, learn to embrace stillness, in boredom, in real life. The world needs you, your curiosity, your humanity, and your ability to think beyond 8 seconds.
Now stop reading this on your screen, and go live.
Someone Who’s Trying to Look Up More
Works Cited
“Average Human Attention Span By Age: 31 Statistics.” The Treetop, Applied Behavior Analysis Therapy, 17 July 2024.
Egan, Timothy. “The Eight-Second Attention Span.” The New York Times, 22 Jan. 2016.
Shoukat, Sehar. “Cell Phone Addiction and Psychological and Physiological Health in Adolescents.” Letter. National Library of Medicine, 4 Feb. 2019.