The Rise of the ‘Obese Mind’

consequences of the conflict between infinite streams and finite attention

PART 1 — THE EXPERIMENT

“At first, it was horrible. I was angry with everyone. I hated the world. I was really hungry, ate everything in my kitchen. But then, I started doing other things. I started reading. I was spending more time with my family. I went outside. I started to relax.”

- Anna, 21, Madrid, describing her experience of being deprived of connectivity as part of a three-day experiment

As access moves towards becoming unlimited, and information and content experiences continue to push infinity, we are starting to see the mental and physiological effects of their over-consumption spread through hyperconnected societies. Unlike the information and content it is increasingly exposed to, our attention is a finite resource, and continually saturating it has arguably given rise to ‘obese minds’. Yet those who design our content streams, information gateways, social networks and communication services seem to ignore that truth in favour of capturing, owning and monetizing it. It is, therefore, worth asking ourselves what the future holds for attention, and how we can ensure it is a sustainable resource for humans, the Internet and commerce alike.

Inside Telefonica’s Product Innovation department, a recent research project involved an experiment that deprived a group of self-proclaimed ‘mobile addicted’ late teens & young adults of connectivity for several days. In parallel, the same experiment was set up to overstimulate another group by giving them unlimited access to mobile data and the challenge to do every Internet-based activity with it.

The majority of cited highs and lows that characterised our participants’ experiences of both experiments were predictable in parts. Those that were overstimulated were suddenly communicating in richer ways more frequently (video, decorated images). They were more spontaneous when it came to planning experiences and events than before. They upped the number of times they would reach for and refresh messaging, social or content platforms, to satisfy an accelerated need for stimulus/dopamine when boredom or loneliness kicked in.

Those who were deprived of connectivity initially felt anxious about missing out on new news that was critical to protecting their social status amongst friends and peers. At times, they felt awkward and feared being judged by peers (one participant mistakenly got himself lost and made a point about asking an older person for directions as opposed to someone his age to mitigate this). Some claimed they initially felt disorientated, as being denied access to maps or a digital memory repository meant they had to make an effort to think again.

However, instead of producing one group of deprived zombies and another of overstimulated superhumans, our participants’ reflections on the experiment revealed quite the opposite.

“I’m overexposing myself to ways of connecting as the speed, and the volume of messages has increased…I keep refreshing three apps at the same time…it’s an obsession.” - Annie, Berlin (overstimulated)

Those who were overstimulated ironically complained about feeling disconnected from the world, as there was so much more to do in an isolated virtual vacuum connectivity surplus had created. In their reflections, they spoke of how they could feel new, addictive habits form (such as constantly and mindlessly refreshing feeds or extending their repertoire of chat apps that prompted new forms of content creation and sharing). The additional incoming and outgoing communications maintenance that came with signing up to new platforms was met with caution. They synonymously agreed that they were hesitant to accept this as a new reality beyond the experiment, but also admitted resistance in the future is probably futile.

“I felt more energised…I realised I had the energy to go out, to discover.”
- Till, 19, Berlin (deprivation)

On the other hand, those who were forced to disconnect gushed about the merits of their self-proclaimed ‘data detoxes’. They appreciated human contact with those they are close to (in most cases, living with), and had time and headspace to reflect on their usual hyperconnected habits (as well as whether or not they are sustainable or even desirable to maintain, moving forward). Moreover, they experienced unfamiliar states of relaxation and levels of energy, for being disconnected forced them to move more and to go outside, instead of whiling an evening away in front of Netflix, Youtube or any other bottomless content stream. Some even took to deleting social and content apps, vowing to stay strong in the aftermath of the experiment.

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Additional research experiments around connected behaviours (e.g. getting research participants to write ‘citizen sci-fi’ about imagined lives in 2026), ratified that this audience had a strong preference for rich over static media. They digested it from streams they were in control of, on demand — not just because it was more engaging or emotive, but because they admitted to lacking the mental stamina required by anything that wasn’t a still or moving image, video or listicle. And whilst they seemingly relished dedicating the lion’s share of their waking hours to scrolling through streams and chatting and broadcasting and decorating their (often tuned) likenesses, they weren’t shy about admitting how this exhausted them, both mentally and physically when given a chance to reflect.

While it streamlines many facets of their lives to help them be more efficient, technology, in the form of content services, also fills the time it helped them reclaim. Tellingly, in our quant work, when asked to reveal how they currently spend the time technology saves them across various aspects of their work and lives, hyperconnected teens & young adults attributed the lion’s share to entertainment binges. When asked how they would like to be spending their time, binges dropped by 40%, and time was redistributed to the pursuit of passions and self-improvement, with physical improvement taking the lead in the wishful scenario.

Failure to resist the temptation of ‘more’ and ‘new‘ lies at the heart of constantly reaching for streams and engaging in binges, yet we must also bear the neurological process that underpins this action in mind. The reward for every check, pull-to-refresh or tap that yields a notification or a scrap of something interesting is a hard-wired, neurological one, in the form of Dopamine.

A recent Nielsen Audience report found that Americans are now spending an hour more on content a day compared to 2015 — an increase in viewing time that used to take traditional television a decade to accrue. Furthermore, Ofcom’s latest report revealed 10 hours worth of content is being consumed in 8 hours online, courtesy of multi-screen multi-tasking, no doubt. It’s no surprise then that 45% of 16–24-year-olds professed they lacked the discipline to keep the time they spend on their mobile in check, and 42% feel that their attention span has been declining as a consequence.

At this point, it is worth pointing out that in spite of these problems, being connected can certainly be a sustainable mode of being, rather than simply a perpetrator of ‘obese minds’. The findings here aim to present opportunities for us to take the lead on an issue that will get louder and continue to gain traction in the media due time. In fact, 54% of our surveyed 16–24-year-olds claim they would like to develop a better discipline around connected devices, and 41% claim to be open to reducing time spend on devices if helped by someone or a service. This insight suggests innovation is in the best position to achieve this, and to do so genuinely.

We have seen a lot of these behaviours and reciprocal issues before — albeit about things dusted with sugar, dripping in fat or packed with modified corn starch. When Western, post-war society fell in love with processed convenience food (and later, fast food), it took several decades until it woke up to the realities of how it impacted their mental and physical health. The parallels between the ailments brought on by processed foods and infinite information and content streams are strikingly similar, meaning we could learn from socio-cultural and corporate efforts to over-correct its impact.

In part 2, we will aim to map out three lessons from the food industry, followed by strategies for innovations that could foster a more sustainable relationship with content and information.