I’ve noticed lately that my mind is has become leaky.

It’s a sieve, and a rather poor one. Things big and small slip through. Forgotten bills, forgotten meetings, forgotten people.

Not that I’ve ever been exactly reliable in these areas, I know that. But it has become worse in the last few years.

I wondered at first if I were getting early onset Alzheimer’s. It seemed plausible enough. I worried that perhaps my thyroid was going, or that my adrenal glands were failing. (You can tell that I get much of my information from Dr. Google, can’t you?)

But, then, because I spend so much time reading on the internet, I started to notice that others were complaining of the same feeling. Many others.

The feeling that we can’t concentrate anymore. The feeling of restlessness and fatigue when we try. The feeling that we’re duller versions of our former selves.

I don’t believe anymore that I am uniquely afflicted. I think many others are adrift on the sea of bits where we now make much of our lives. Overwhlemed and treading as fast as we can.

But, is there a cure?

Maybe. Lots of others have talked about how to sever ourselves from our phones, meditate, look into our childrens’ eyes, etc. Those things might work.

But I think, I’m afraid, the answer lies in something bigger.

It may take a full-scale act of refusal in order to reverse our downward trending ability to think and concentrate.

Why? Just because the authors of our distraction are so tempting, so easy, so effective. The tools were made to snag us.

Why? Just because these authors of our distraction are so tempting, so easy, so effective. The tools were made to snag us.

But, these days, I make my living in pixels. I’m not sure how to escape it, or even that I really want to.

I have the sense that the answer, at least for me, lies in turning my pixelwork into a craft.