사회

Technology Weakens Our Minds. We Can Fix This.

Today, we take for granted that diet and exercise are vitally important for our health and well-being. But we didn’t always think this way. Much of this awareness emerged in a remarkably short...

NYTIMES 입력 2026.03.27 18:02 0

Technology Weakens Our Minds. We Can Fix This.

You have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load.

Credit...

Christoph Niemann

Skip to site index

Opinion

Guest Essay

Technology Weakens Our Minds. We Can Fix This.

Credit...

Christoph Niemann

Supported by

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT

Listen

· 19:50 min

Share full article

Cal Newport

Mr. Newport is a professor of computer science at Georgetown University and the author of “Deep Work.”

March 27, 2026

Today, we take for granted that diet and exercise are vitally important for our health and well-being. But we didn’t always think this way. Much of this awareness emerged in a remarkably short span of time during the middle of the last century.

In 1955, President Dwight Eisenhower suffered a heart attack after playing golf in Denver. This event shocked the nation. The president was just 64 years old and projected American strength and vitality. The surgeon general at the time said that hearing the news about the heart attack was like learning about the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

Instead of retreating into secrecy, the White House flew in Dr. Paul Dudley White, a leading cardiologist who helped found the American Heart Association. Dr. White set a new standard for transparency. When he spoke to the press, he went beyond explaining the president’s condition and sought to educate the public about cardiac events more generally.

“Heart attacks became less mysterious and less frightening to millions of Americans that day,” explains a New England Journal of Medicine

article

, “and White gave them the message that they could take steps to reduce their risk.” The idea that diet played a large role in mortality soon entered the national consciousness.

Some 10 years later, Dr. Kenneth Cooper, a military doctor who conducted fitness research for NASA, published a book titled “Aerobics.” Dr. Cooper promoted a novel argument: Cardiovascular exercise was critical for health. In an era when people increasingly had sedentary jobs and lived a car-based lifestyle in the suburbs, Dr. Cooper emphasized the need to specifically put aside time to exercise as a key component of longevity.

This was a radical idea in a culture in which voluntary exercise was associated primarily with the Army or sports. “Aerobics” became a best seller, and millions of people began exercising. According to Dr. Cooper, when his book was first published,

less than 24 percent

of the adult population engaged in regular physical activity and there were fewer than 100,000 joggers. Within 16 years, close to 60 percent of the population exercised, including 34 million joggers.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and

log into

your Times account, or

for all of The Times.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

Already a subscriber?

Want all of The Times?