被缩短的注意力

我昨天看了一下手机上的统计，吓了一跳。上个星期，我每天平均花三个多小时刷短视频。三个小时！我完全没有感觉到时间过去了。你每天刷多久？

Yesterday I looked at the statistics on my phone and got a shock. Last week I spent an average of more than three hours a day scrolling short videos. Three hours! I had absolutely no sense of the time passing. How long do you scroll each day?

我不敢看那个数字，看了会难过，可是我知道肯定不少。对我来说，比时间更可怕的是另一件事：我发现自己看书的时候，看两页就想拿手机。以前我一个晚上能读半本小说，现在坐十分钟都坐不住。你有没有这种感觉？

I don't dare look at that number. It would upset me, but I know it must be a lot. For me, something else is scarier than the hours: I've noticed that when I read a book, after two pages I want to reach for my phone. I used to get through half a novel in an evening. Now I can't sit still for ten minutes. Do you get that feeling?

有，而且我觉得这不是偶然的。这些软件后面有算法，它比你自己更清楚你喜欢什么。你在一个视频上多停了两秒，它就记住了，下一个会更合你的口味。它的目的很简单：让你一直看下去。

I do, and I don't think it's an accident. Behind these apps there's an algorithm, and it knows what you like better than you do. Linger two extra seconds on one video and it remembers, and the next one suits your taste even better. Its goal is simple: keep you watching.

说得对。算法每几十秒就给你一个新的东西，你的注意力就被训练成只能坚持几十秒。书正好相反，一本书要求你专注一两个小时，可是我们已经不习惯专注这么久了。所以你后来是怎么办的？

Exactly. The algorithm hands you something new every thirty seconds or so, and your attention gets trained to hold out for exactly that long. Books are the opposite. A book asks you to concentrate for an hour or two, and we're no longer used to concentrating that long. So what did you end up doing?

我上个月把那个软件删除了，整整一个月没有装回来。

Last month I deleted the app, and for a whole month I didn't put it back.

真的？一个月？你是怎么做到的？我试过两次戒掉它，两次都失败了。

Really? A month? How did you manage that? I've tried to quit it twice, and failed both times.

头三天最难受。排队的时候、坐地铁的时候，手会自己伸向手机，打开以后发现没有东西可刷，就觉得特别无聊，心里空空的。可是大概一个星期以后，有些东西开始慢慢恢复了。

The first three days were the worst. Standing in line, riding the subway, my hand would reach for the phone by itself, and when I opened it and found nothing to scroll, I felt unbearably bored, hollow inside. But after about a week, some things slowly started to come back.

恢复了什么？你具体说说。

What came back? Tell me specifically.

先是无聊本身变得可以忍受了。我发现人无聊的时候，会自己想事情，想工作，想朋友，想一些很久没想过的问题。然后是看书。第一个星期我只能读十几分钟，到月底的时候，我又能专注地读一个多小时了。注意力好像肌肉一样，不用就会变弱，练一练又能恢复。

First, boredom itself became bearable. I found that when a person is bored, the mind starts working on its own, thinking about work, about friends, about questions I hadn't thought about in ages. Then came reading. The first week I could only manage fifteen minutes or so. By the end of the month I could read with full concentration for over an hour again. Attention is like a muscle. Leave it unused and it weakens; train it a little and it recovers.

我羡慕你。我第一次试的时候，坚持了五天。后来同事在工作的群里发了一个视频，我点开看了，想着就看这一个，结果那天晚上又刷到十二点。第二次更快，三天就把它装回来了。

I envy you. The first time I tried, I lasted five days. Then a coworker posted a video in our work group chat. I opened it, telling myself just this one, and that night I scrolled until midnight again. The second time was even faster. Three days and I had it reinstalled.

那你觉得，戒掉它为什么这么难？真的只是我们不够坚强吗？

So why do you think quitting is this hard? Is it really just that we're not strong enough?

我想诚实一点说，这不完全是坚强的问题。第一，那个东西是几百个很聪明的工程师做出来的，他们的工作就是让你放不下它。一个普通人靠自己跟一个算法比，本来就不公平。第二，我一个人住，晚上回家特别安静，刷视频的时候至少觉得热闹。删掉软件容易，可是那个安静怎么办，我到现在还没有答案。

Let me be honest: it isn't entirely a question of willpower. First, that thing was built by hundreds of very smart engineers whose job is to make you unable to put it down. An ordinary person going up against an algorithm alone was never a fair fight. Second, I live by myself, and my place is dead quiet at night. Scrolling videos at least feels lively. Deleting the app is easy. But what do I do about that quiet? I still don't have an answer.

这一点我承认。删除软件不难，难的是面对删除以后空出来的时间。我那个月开始给朋友打电话，一个星期做两三次饭。听起来都是很小的事，可是那些时间，以前全都给了算法。

I'll grant you that. Deleting the app isn't hard. The hard part is facing the hours it leaves empty. That month I started calling friends, and I cooked two or three times a week. It all sounds small, but that time used to go entirely to the algorithm.

那你现在呢？一个月以后，你把它装回来了吗？

And now? After the month was up, did you reinstall it?

装回来了，可是我给自己定了规则：只在吃午饭的时候看，每天不超过半个小时。有时候还是会多刷一会儿，我不想骗你。可是我现在知道了一件事：注意力是可以恢复的。知道这一点，我就不那么害怕了。

I did, but I set myself a rule: only over lunch, no more than half an hour a day. Some days I still scroll a bit longer, I won't lie to you. But now I know one thing: attention can recover. Knowing that, I'm not so afraid anymore.

好，那我做个决定。这个月我再试一次，第三次，一定要把它戒掉。晚上的安静，我先用你的办法，给朋友打电话。要是我又失败了，你可别笑我。

All right, then I'm making a decision. This month I'll try again, third time, and quit it for good. As for the quiet at night, I'll start with your method and call a friend. If I fail again, don't you laugh at me.

不会笑你。你失败了两次还愿意再试，这说明你的注意力还是你自己的，你还没打算把它送给算法。

I won't laugh. You've failed twice and you're still willing to try. That means your attention still belongs to you. You haven't decided to hand it over to the algorithm yet.