Ep. 336: On Screens and Solitude

Deep Questions with Cal Newport

Cal Newport

Technology, Self-improvement, Education

4.8 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 20 January 2025

⏱️ 91 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In a recent article for The Atlantic, Derek Thompson writes about the troubling trends toward increased solitude. In this episode, Cal looks at the role technology plays in these trends, pointing out some surprising factors and then using these insights to come up with a practical plan for reconnecting with the world. He then answers listener questions and concludes with a tech corner segment inspired by yet another New Yorker column.

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Cald-Newport, and this is Deep Questions, the show about cultivating a deep life
0:17.1	in a distracted world.
0:24.2	I'm here in my Deep Work, H.Q.
0:26.8	I'm joined as always by my producer, Jesse.
0:30.1	Jesse, some irony.
0:32.3	You know, last week we did this episode, we were talking about morning routines,
0:36.5	and we were kind of lamenting the over the top
0:40.3	nature of morning routine videos online and we looked at some of those like jaco and joe rogan
0:45.5	talking about his ice bath but anyways we put out the video of that episode and our youtube guide named
0:50.7	an optimal morning routine and the video is doing really well. So we have become, YouTube is treating us like one of those over the top morning routine
0:59.5	videos, even though the video was itself actually critiquing a lot of those morning
1:02.6	routine videos.
1:03.5	So I thought it was funny.
1:05.5	Yeah, I mean, he did say that those types of videos generate a lot of attraction.
1:11.0	Yeah.
1:11.6	God knows how that algorithm works.
1:14.3	Morning routines have been a big thing for years now.
1:17.9	I saw it mentioned even, like in the article we're going to talk about today in the deep dive of the Derek Thompson Atlantic article.
1:23.9	He talks about it at some point in there, how he has become or he became sort of
1:28.3	addicted to watching morning routine videos and TikToks. So I guess it's like a genre that's just
1:35.0	interesting in itself, just watching people with their really organized, really organized mornings.
1:40.6	My morning routine video, like an actual day in the life, will be a lot more stressful.
	...

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