Jonas Gren's 'Sommarprat' offers a stark look at digital life

Poet and writer Jonas Gren shared his experiences with a disconnected life and alarming statistics about screen usage in his Sommar i P1 radio program. Greta Schüldt of Dagens Nyheter listened, noting Gren's critique of how digital devices affect human focus, with people changing attention every 47 seconds when online.

Gren, known for his nature-inspired poetry and the book "Ingen surf" (No Surf), argues that the constant internet-connected human is less than twenty years old, dating its rise to the iPhone's 2007 launch and Facebook's widespread adoption. Despite this, he lives a largely offline life, working in an office without an internet router and eschewing smartphones.

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one of the most depressing figures of our time is that a person at an internet-connected screen changes focus every 47 seconds.

Schüldt acknowledges Gren's "thought-provoking" content but finds his program somewhat disjointed and his language surprisingly unpoetic for a writer. She notes his self-admission of being "a bit good" at managing internet access, which necessitates setting boundaries. Gren's program aims to encourage listeners to do the same, urging them to set limits on their digital engagement.

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Yes, I am a bit good. But it's because I'm so damn bad at handling internet access that I have to set boundaries.