International speaker in TD Sept. 27 to talk ‘focus’

The free presentation, by British journalist and author Johann Hari, runs from 6:30-8:30 p.m. at The Dalles High School Auditorium.

Titled “Finding Hope and Connection in a Time of Depression, Anxiety and Addiction,” the talk is sponsored by Youththink, Wasco County’s organization for preventing youth drug and alcohol abuse.

Hari will not only talk about our collapsing ability to focus, but also addiction and depression, topics he’s covered for major newspapers around the world, and also in his own bestselling books. His Ted Talks have generated more than 80 million views.

His latest book “Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention,” is a bestseller and his book on addiction was made into the movie “The United States vs. Billie Holiday.”

Speaking about his latest book on a January podcast, Hari said, “We are living in a profound attention crisis.” When his own focus wavered, he initially blamed himself, but after interviewing experts the world over, he learned multiple causes for loss of focus exist, and most are on the rise. Technology is not the only culprit. Among many others are the food we eat, the air we breathe, and lost sleep.

In the podcast, Hari said multi-tasking isn’t real, it’s just task switching, which comes at a steep cost. Those costs include the expenditure of mental energy needed to switch between tasks, worsened memory, increased errors, and over time, lost creativity.

Another drain on attention is the lack of playtime for kids. Free play, such as at recess, or after school exploring the neighborhood, contributes to improved attention in many ways.

Exercise boosts the brain, Hari said, and playing teaches skills like taking turns and problem solving. Also, small things can build confidence, and kids deprived of play don’t learn what they’re good at.

Hari has had lots of trauma in his own life and has studied addiction and the effects of screen time, said Debby Jones, director of Youththink. In his book “Chasing the Scream,” he argues that the opposite of addiction is connection to others.

Even before the pandemic, rates of depression, suicide and anxiety were increasing, Jones said.

Jones said Hari will talk about the deeper reason of “why there’s a need in our society to turn to artificial things to either completely numb out, or ‘I am so depleted or depressed I need something to just help me get through the day.’ And everybody, to a certain extent, has gone through that over the past two years.

“We feel one of the key things we could do so much better is connecting more together,” Jones said. She likes to call it “Vitamin C — connection.”

Humans are built to need connection, and behavioral health issues are only made worse by isolation. “We are meant to connect,” Jones said. “We thrive in an environment where we feel supported.”

Jones said that Hari notes “even the need to turn to social media for likes is a desire to feel valued and appreciated.”

She said local youth have a sense that nobody cares about them, even though it’s not true. “I think this community has a majority of amazing adults, but I don’t think our kids see that.”

She noted, “We’re living in this time of political divides, income divides, race divides. And when you sit down and begin to connect with someone and find you have more in common, that’s uplifting and it inspires hope that maybe we can do something.”

She hopes people come away from the talk with a sense of the ability to be involved and some ideas about how to connect better locally. Ways to help out locally will be shared at the talk.

Helping could be something as simple as smiling at someone downtown, or volunteering at the food bank, she said.

Jones said, “I want us to walk away and think, ‘Hey, I can do better.’”