Wait, what?

Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, “Concentration is the secret of strength in politics, in war, in trade, in short in all management of human affairs.”

Well, if that’s the case, Americans are weak AF. According to a new study, office workers were only able to focus an average of three minutes. It’s even worse for the youngins: a sample of college students found they could only focus on a task for 65 seconds.

Obviously, technology – namely cell phones and social media – is at the heart of what’s stealing our attention, and some scientists are warning we are on the brink of a collective crisis.

Yes, there are changes we can make to gain some of that laser focus back. But by far the greater threat are tech companies that strategically manipulate our minds to vie for our eyeballs. And some suggest regulations to combat this brain control.

And we’re all susceptible to it: even I’ve refreshed The New York Times homepage 57 times in the course of writing this column to see if Russia has invaded Ukraine yet.

Oh, thank god, still nothing. At least for another 65 seconds.