Who Owns Your Attention? Gloria Mark on Rethinking Focus in the Digital Age

In this episode of High on Healthy, host Richard Zwicky speaks with Gloria Mark, professor of informatics at UC Irvine, about how digital technology and AI impact human attention spans, critical thinking, and social well-being.

Mark explains that while our fundamental capacity for focus remains intact, modern environments foster constant interruptions—both external and self-induced—that fragment our focus and drive up stress.

She stresses the importance of reclaiming our agency, establishing organizational guardrails, and viewing AI as a guiding tool rather than a replacement for human thought.