Reclaiming Your Attention and Finding Digital Well-Being with Gloria Mark

Psychologist and ATTENTION SPAN author Gloria Mark joins us to discuss the connection between attention and well-being, the technologies manipulating our attention (and why social-media algorithms are just the tip of the iceberg), why modern life isn’t “causing” ADHD, the individual and societal changes needed to improve attentional well-being, how to discover your own personal rhythm of attention, and more. Gloria Mark is Chancellor’s Professor Emerita at the University of California, Irvine, and also spent ten years as a visiting senior researcher at Microsoft Research. She received her PhD from Columbia University in psychology. For over two decades she has researched the impact of digital media on people's lives, studying how using our devices affect our multitasking, distractions, mood and behavior. She has published over 200 papers in the top journals and conferences in the field of human-computer interaction, has received numerous paper awards, and was inducted into the ACM SIGCHI Academy in 2017 in recognition for her contribution to the field. She has also been a Fulbright scholar and has received the prestigious NSF Career grant. Her work has been widely recognized outside of academia: she has appeared on The Ezra Klein show, NPR’s Hidden Brain, Sanjay Gupta’s CNN Chasing Life, CBS Sunday Morning, Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert, among many others. Her work has been featured in the popular media, e.g. New York Times, Wall Street Journal, NPR, The Atlantic, BBC, and others. She has been invited to present her work at SXSW and the Aspen Ideas Festival. Her recent book is Attention Span: A Groundbreaking Way to Restore Balance, Happiness and Productivity, named by The Globe and Mail as the #1 Best Business and Management book of 2023, and chosen as the Season 20 selection of the Next Big Idea Book Club. Find her at gloriamark.com and on Substack.If you like this conversation, subscribe to hear lots more like it! Support the podcast by becoming a paid subscriber, and unlock great perks like bonus episodes with our guests, subscriber-only Q&As, full access to our archives, commenting privileges and subscriber threads where you can connect with other listeners, and more. Learn more and sign up at rethinkingwellness.substack.com.Christy's second book, The Wellness Trap, is available wherever books are sold! Order it online or ask for it in your favorite local bookstore. If you're looking to make peace with food and break free from diet and wellness culture, come check out Christy's Intuitive Eating Fundamentals online course. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit rethinkingwellness.substack.com/subscribe