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Many people today move through the world with a kind of constant distraction. A phone in the hand, earbuds in the ears, eyes drawn again and again to the small glowing screen we carry everywhere. Walking down the street while listening to a podcast. Scrolling through messages. Checking headlines. Glancing at the endless stream of videos, memes, and updates that seem to refresh themselves every few seconds. It is possible to walk an entire block that way and hardly notice who passes beside you. A neighbor might walk by. A friend might wave. Someone might even speak your name—and yet we keep moving, barely aware. The person was there the whole time. We simply did not see them.

The cultural critic Neil Postman once warned that people might someday “come to adore the technologies that undo their capacity to think.” His concern was not merely about devices themselves but about attention. In a distracted world, the ability to notice what truly matters becomes increasingly rare.…