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🇦🇷 Argentina /Health & Science

Psychiatrist Marian Rojas Estapé warns that life has been put on “2X”

From La Nación · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

In-depth Named sources Context piece
  • Marian Rojas Estapé says modern habits such as playing audio messages at double speed encourage people to consume more while overlooking nuance.
  • She links constant scrolling and rapid content consumption to a reward cycle that makes silence and pauses feel unproductive.
  • The psychiatrist argues that society’s technological and material progress has not been matched by equal attention to emotional well-being.

Spanish psychiatrist Marian Rojas Estapé has given a name to the pressure to move constantly from one stimulus to the next: the “2X of life.” In a conference excerpt shared on Instagram, she described a culture that listens, watches and consumes at ever-increasing speed.

Her example was familiar to many listeners: playing audio messages at double speed. The habit delivers the general meaning quickly, but can strip away tone, pauses and other details that reveal how another person is really speaking. “The 2X of life means you get the gist, but you don’t catch the nuances,” Rojas Estapé said. “Part of life and its greatness lies in catching the nuances of things.”

We put life on 2X. We focus on the gist and forget the nuances.

· Marian Rojas EstapéThe psychiatrist introduced her description of accelerated modern life.

She said the same pattern extends beyond technology. People move rapidly between videos, messages and other forms of content, driven by the expectation that the next item will provide a new and attractive stimulus. That expectation can keep them watching, scrolling or listening even when they have no particular interest in what comes next.

The 2X of life means you get the gist, but you don’t catch the nuances. Part of life and its greatness lies in catching the nuances of things.

· Marian Rojas EstapéShe explained what people lose when they consume messages and experiences too quickly.

“The constant need is to consume quickly, without reflecting on what we consume,” she explained. In her view, speed becomes a habit that affects not only people’s relationship with technology, but also their ability to sustain attention and tolerate stillness. Silence and pauses can begin to feel like interruptions to productivity rather than ordinary parts of life.

Rojas Estapé also contrasted society’s external progress with the attention it gives to the inner world. She said contemporary culture focuses mainly on what can be seen from the outside, while emotional well-being receives less attention. “Today we are skipping all the nuances and going straight to the gist,” she warned.

Today we are skipping all the nuances and going straight to the gist.

· Marian Rojas EstapéShe warned that speed is changing how people experience everyday life.
About this summary

Originally published by La Nación in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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