Are We Losing Our Minds in the Age of Perpetual Distraction

Yesterday, I was at Trader Joe’s, checking out. As I walked to my car, I glanced at the receipt and wondered why the total seemed unusually high. Looking closer, I realized the cashier had accidentally scanned two items twice. I walked back in, explained the error, and a cashier called over the supervisor. They refunded the money without hesitation.

It was a simple fix. But the lesson was clear: whatever service you receive, verify it.

This morning, just after Mass, I found myself craving a nice, cold coffee. I pulled into a donut shop drive-thru and ordered an iced caramel macchiato. I got my coffee, drove off, and took a sip. It wasn’t what I ordered. Part of me wanted to turn back, but I didn’t. I just kept driving.

Two small moments. Less than twenty-four hours apart.

I could list more examples, but I don’t need to. The pattern is obvious, people aren’t paying attention, any more. And this isn’t just about wrong coffee orders or double-scanned groceries. It’s a symptom of something deeper, something scarier. Something I had long observed and wanted to write about. 

We are living in an age of TikTok brains, YouTube short, where our attention spans are fractured, our focus constantly hijacked by the next notification, the next video, the next distraction. Our attention is in higher demand than ever before by big tech and others. 

See, in my line of work, attention isn’t optional. If I lose focus, someone could be injured, or worse, die. And yet, I look around, on the road, in restaurants, even at work, and I see a level of inattentiveness that’s alarming. It’s not just carelessness. It feels like a cultural shift, like we’ve collectively stopped caring. It is always painful to watch this at work. 

Our minds, our attention, our ability to notice things, that’s what separates us from other species. If we let those slip away, what’s left of our humanity?

Big tech thrives on stealing our attention. They package it, sell it, and feed it back to us in bite-sized dopamine hits. And if we don’t take it back, we risk becoming little more than distracted animals, reactive, impulsive, disconnected. Some pets these days like dogs are becoming more attentive than we do. That is an affront to our common humanity. 

We must reclaim our attention. Not just for our own sake, but for the future of those coming after us. Our young people deserve a future where focus, care, and conscience aren’t relics of a bygone era.

Because if we lose our minds, we lose everything.

Stay attentive, and stay human.

God bless you

~Pal Ronnie~