The distracted digital age prevents the contemplative conclusion that constitutes reason

Evidence

Shutting one’s eyes offers a symbol for arriving at a conclusion. Abrupt change from image to image, from information to information, has made any such contemplative conclusion impossible. If all that qualifies as reasonable is a syllogism – a conclusion – then our era, the age of Big Data, is an epoch without reason. — Byung-Chul Han, Psychopolitics, 165

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Information is structurally prevented from becoming genuine thought — Theodor W. Adorno, The Culture Industry: Selected Essays…, 126; Distraction and mediation can be emancipatory rather than merely degrading — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 351; Attention-economy distractions accumulate to erode autonomy and selfhood — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing: Resisting the…, 403 (+8 more)

Broader Connections

• Constant information overload structurally undermines the capacity for independent thought #corroborates (0.95) — George Michelsen Foy, Zero Decibels, 453
• Information is structurally prevented from becoming genuine thought #corroborates (0.92) — Theodor W. Adorno, The Culture Industry, 126
• Attention-economy distractions accumulate to erode autonomy and selfhood #expands (0.85) — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing, 403
• Distraction and mediation can be emancipatory rather than merely degrading #contradicts (0.78) — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 351
• Knowledge requires mental reflection on existence rather than passive sensory impressions #expands (0.78) — Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, 693
• Art can function as attention-holding architecture against distraction #complicates (0.75) — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing, 58
• Fidelity to systematic thought in a fragmented epoch requires deliberate unsystematicity #responds-to (0.74) — Fredric Jameson, Marxism and Form, 110
• Creative thought requires an initial silence that clears prior mental assumptions #responds-to (0.73) — George Michelsen Foy, Zero Decibels, 453
• Thought requires deliberate self-distancing because reality resists being understood directly #expands (0.72)
• Mass media consumption can harm mental states and distort perceptions of reality #exemplifies (0.72) — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 663