Digital culture is destroying our ability to fully engage with and be transformed by art
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/profile/nadia-khomami. "Hey! You in the stalls! Put that phone away and surrender to the art | Nadia Khomami | The Guardian." June 6, 2026. www.theguardian.com
The Gist
The author argues that smartphones and social media have trained us to constantly switch our attention, making it nearly impossible to focus deeply on art like theater, films, or books. This matters because great art is supposed to change us, but that can only happen if we give it our full attention instead of treating it like social media content.
Conclusion
Our digital culture has eroded our capacity for sustained attention to art, preventing us from experiencing the transformative power that great art requires
Premises
- Audience members increasingly use phones and devices during live performances, as evidenced by multiple incidents with prominent actors like Rosamund Pike, Cynthia Erivo, and Andrew Scott
- Digital platforms have trained us for partial, interruptible consumption through infinite scroll, skip functions, and short clips as part of their business model
- This attention deficit extends beyond theater to cinemas, literature (BookTok readers skipping descriptive passages), and museums where art becomes content for social media documentation
- Great art has always required temporary relinquishment of self and willingness to enter another's world - a capacity we are losing
- The need for enforcement measures like phone pouches and bans indicates how severe the attention crisis has become
Assumptions
- Sustained, undivided attention is necessary for meaningful artistic experience
- Being transformed by art is inherently valuable and worth preserving
- Digital platforms intentionally design features that fragment attention
- Past generations had superior capacity for sustained attention to art
- The quality of artistic experience is diminished when attention is divided