Social Media Stole Your Attention. AI Is Stealing Something It Can’t Give Back.

A 666-person study confirms that AI is degrading human judgment in a way that is structurally different from social media's impact on attention. The research warns that while attention loss from social media may be recoverable, AI's erosion of critical thinking skills may be permanent.

Member-only story Social Media Stole Your Attention. AI Is Stealing Something It Can’t Give Back. GPS killed your sense of direction. AI is doing the same to your judgment — a 666-person study confirms it. Here’s why this one’s harder to fix. The attention crisis was bad. What is coming next is structurally different and harder to fix. Social media hijacked the ability to focus. AI is quietly hijacking the ability to think. One is recoverable. The other may not be. Here is the research that explains why and what to do before the window closes. Around 2015, I noticed something uncomfortable about my own reading. I could still pick up a book. I could still start a chapter. But somewhere around page four, I would find myself reaching for my phone — not because anything had happened, not because I expected a message, but because my brain had been trained to expect interruption. The sustained attention required to read a single argument through to its conclusion had quietly degraded.