- Critics once worried about television's impact on attention spans, but even it required weekly viewing commitments unlike today's fleeting TikTok scrolling.
- Reading books for pleasure is declining, with even a typical romance novel representing a commitment equivalent to thousands of tweets, highlighting a shift away from sustained engagement.
- Marshall McLuhan's idea that 'the medium is the message' suggests a difference between spending time on long-form content (like movies) versus endless scrolling, which affects our practice of commitment.
- While faster media consumption offers benefits like consumer choice and agency, doomscrolling undermines attention spans and reduces opportunities to exercise commitment.
- Commitment is essential for achieving hard, positive outcomes such as starting a company, getting married, or raising a family, requiring deliberate choices and persistence through difficulty.
- Without regular practice, we may lose the ability to commit, so it's important to deliberately exercise commitment muscles, like finishing a recommended movie or book instead of quickly abandoning them.
- In a world encouraging passive consumption, making conscious choices to engage with longer content can help counteract the decline in commitment, even if it starts with small acts.