Paying Attention: Two weeks ago, I heard Dr. Peter Tse, a professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at Dartmouth, speak on today’s “Attention Economy.” Tse, whose research focuses on the neural basis of attention– i.e., how our brain focuses on specific things rather than being constantly distracted by everything else – became interested in this topic after noting a sudden, marked decline in the resilience and well-being of his undergrad students in 2013. In his comments, Tse made several interesting observations on the interplay between technology, addiction, attention and boredom. But I was most taken by one thing: He got rid of his cell phone a few years ago.
Speaking of Ivy League Students: I learned that even though one of the Ivies has expanded its undergraduate mental health support staff by 650 percent, it still can take students more than two months to get an appointment with a mental health professional.
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WOTW: This week I received nominations for Grievance Olympics and TIV – the second being an abbreviation for Tendency for Interpersonal Victimhood, a term some are suggesting as a new mental health diagnosis. But I am going with Motive Attribution Asymmetry (MAA) instead. MAA is a social psychology term used to describe “our inclination to assume the best about ourselves and the worst about others.” I’d like you to think I selected this term while reflecting on the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector (Luke 18:9f), but it came to me while watching election coverage.
Quotes Worth Requoting: 1) Courage is knowing it might hurt and doing it anyway. Stupidity is the same. And that is why life is hard. Jeremy Goldberg; 2) The worst thing a jerk can do is turn you into a jerk. Frank Oppenheimer
A Week Late: Because you’ve already received all the political news you can handle – and perhaps a fair bit more – I did not mention psephology in the WOTW entry. (Psephology is the study of elections.) Nevertheless, I am passing along two videos. The first is a Lakelight discussion I participated in with Dr. Vincent Bacote (Professor of Theology at Wheaton College and the author of The Political Disciple: A Theology of Public Life). The second is Ronald Reagan’s farewell address. A saner time.
Without Comment: 1) Excessive drinking – which spiked during COVID – now accounts for one in five deaths among Americans aged 20 to 49; 2) This article tells us – again – that more tech = less teen happiness, especially among young people; 3) FWIW, Congress’s approval rating hasn’t cracked 30% in ten years; 4) This report notes that while 70% of American women say that it is “always” wrong when a man has an extramarital affair, only 56% say the same when it is a woman who has an affair. It also notes that the moral double standard is particularly large among liberal women; 5) 96% of political donations from Ivy League faculty go to the Ds.
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A Graph is Worth 1,000 Words: This graph makes a point I keep trying to make: Yes, there is a lot going wrong, but in a lot of important ways, things are getting better. On a related note, last week I celebrated the 31stanniversary of my 31st birthday, which means I now qualify for Social Security. I share this because, during the ‘80s I used to repeat a statistic announcing that more people my age believed in UFOs than believed they would ever receive a nickel from SS. I’m not suggesting our SS system is healthy, but on this point, the Bad News Bears were wrong.
Closing Prayer: Come, true light. Come, life eternal. Come, hidden mystery… Come, reality beyond all words. Come, person beyond all understanding. Come, rejoicing without end. Come, light that knows no evening. Come, unfailing expectation of the saved. Come, raised of the fallen. Come, resurrection of the dead. Come, all-powerful, for unceasingly you create… Come, for your name fills our hearts with longing and is ever on our lips… Come, for you are yourself the desire that is within me. Come, the consolation of my humble soul. Come, my joy, my endless delight. Amen.