Why is controlling your attention — and avoiding doom-scrolling — part of critical thinking?

Critical thinking is partly a matter of attention and care; when you're doom-scrolling, critical thinking is effectively switched off.

The claim is that good thinking has a precondition: deliberate, controlled attention. Practices that fragment and hijack attention — endless scrolling through alarming feeds ("doom-scrolling") — put the mind into a reactive, emotionally-driven mode in which critical evaluation simply doesn't happen. Budelacci links this to the marshmallow test image of self-control: the capacity to resist immediate impulse in service of a better outcome. So cultivating critical thinking isn't only about acquiring techniques; it's about guarding your attention so the techniques have a chance to operate at all.