Have you ever opened Instagram or TikTok for “just a minute”…
…and suddenly realised 20 minutes disappeared?
One video.
Then another.
Someone snapping their fingers and changing clothes.
Someone unboxing something.
Someone dancing.
Someone doing something completely ridiculous.
And somehow you keep watching.
Something interesting is happening in your brain at that moment.
Your attention narrows.
The room disappears.
You stop noticing the carpet, the noise, even the person sitting next to you.
Your brain enters a state psychologists call attentional absorption.
Or in simpler terms:
A trance-like focus.
Long before social media existed, psychiatrist Milton Erickson (1901–1980) described this state while studying hypnosis.
He wrote:
“Hypnosis is a narrowing of the focus of attention.”
In that state, the brain becomes highly receptive to ideas and suggestions.
This is why Erickson used hypnosis to help people overcome:
• addictions
• phobias
• chronic pain
• anxiety
But here’s the surprising part.
You don’t need a hypnotherapist to enter that state.
You enter it every day.
When you watch a movie.
When you read a novel.
When you drive home and suddenly realise you don’t remember the last few kilometres.
Your attention narrows.
The rest of the world fades.
Your brain becomes highly focused.
Psychologist Ernest Hilgard at Stanford University studied this phenomenon for decades.
His research showed something fascinating:
• about 30% of people are highly responsive to suggestion
• another 30–40% moderately responsive
In other words…
most human brains are capable of entering suggestible states.
And repetition strengthens it.
Think about the last time you had a song stuck in your head.
Or a phrase from a movie that kept replaying.
That’s not random.
It’s how the brain learns.
Neuroscientists call it the illusory truth effect.
The more often we hear something…
…the more true it begins to feel.
Even if it isn’t.
Now consider something else.
Marketing research estimates we see 4,000–10,000 advertisements per day.
Algorithms learn what holds our attention.
Then they show us more of the same.
Again.
And again.
And again.
Attention has quietly become one of the most valuable resources on Earth.
The global attention economy is worth over $500 billion.
Every like.
Every pause while scrolling.
Every video watched to the end.
These signals help algorithms refine a psychological profile of you.
The goal?
Keep your attention a little longer tomorrow than today.
This doesn’t mean technology is evil.
But it does mean something important.
Your attention is constantly being competed for.
And attention shapes something even more powerful.
Your thinking.
Your preferences.
Your beliefs.
The good news?
Attention works like a muscle.
It can be trained.
Protected.
Directed.
Simple things help:
• reducing algorithm-driven content
• using ad blockers
• choosing long-form content over endless scrolling
• creating spaces for uninterrupted thinking
These practices create something increasingly rare.
Mental space.
And mental space is where clarity lives.
Digitally-conscious,
Audriius
