1. The passage that I chose to look at from Matthew Crawford’s book The World Beyond Your Head is referencing The Onion, which is a satirical publication which Crawford is using to make a real point. The passage is as follows:
“ ‘Platt, who reportedly sunk into a distracted haze after coming to the razor’s edge of experiencing genuine joy, fully intended to go through the motions of talking with friends and appearing to have a good time, all while mentally shopping for a birthday present for his mother, wracked his brain to remember his he had turned in the itemized reimbursement form from his New York trip on time…’, I think most of us can recognize ourselves in Mr. Platt. Is “modern life” really so burdensome? Yes it is. But Mr. Platt seems to have a deeper difficulty as well: joy can get no grip on him.”
This passage references a quoted Onion article, which is satirical and is about an ordinary man who can’t seem to focus on what is actually happening, and is stuck in his head. While this is a satirical article, Crawford uses it in his novel as a way of displaying the current state of attention, and explains that inattention prevents people from experiencing joy.
2. The only limit that I have noticed in this source is the implication that this is all new. Humans have always been distracted, whether by their own lives or something going on in someone else’s. While the internet and technology have done nothing to help this issue, this is not an issue purely affecting this generation. The effects are different to people who were born before the widespread use of the internet, but these people will also have the human tendency to worry about the past and future.
