Your Brain Wasn’t Built for this Speed
August 11, 2026
“Slow the noise.”
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There was a time when the news arrived in the morning newspaper and again on the evening broadcast. Today, it never stops. Markets move in seconds, artificial intelligence produces answers almost instantly, social media delivers an endless stream of opinions, and a crisis thousands of miles away can appear on our phones before we have finished breakfast. The American Psychological Association’s 2025 Stress in America survey offers some perspective on what this environment may be doing to us. According to the APA, 69% of American adults surveyed identified inaccurate or misleading information as a significant source of stress, while 57% said the rise of artificial intelligence was a significant stressor. Three-quarters said they were more stressed about the country’s future than they used to be. We have unprecedented access to information, but access and understanding are not the same thing.
The answer isn’t to become uninformed. It is to become more deliberate about what deserves our attention. Not every notification requires an immediate response, every headline deserves an emotional reaction, or every controversy needs our participation. One of the great challenges of the modern world may be learning to separate what is urgent from what merely feels urgent. Technology will continue getting faster; our responsibility is to make certain our judgment doesn’t become equally rushed. Sometimes the smartest response to an accelerating world is surprisingly simple: slow down long enough to think.
