WHY WE CLICK

Exploring “the most consequential social dynamic most people have never heard of.”

Synchrony is the alignment of your body and mind with an external source. Through new technologies, this phenomenon is only recently being studied by scientists. You can “click” or experience synchrony with just about anything: people, nature, animals, fictional or famous characters, and even inanimate objects like cars, planes, and boats. Murphy, author of You’re Not Listening, presents an overview of the field of synchrony, along with a plethora of examples of mysterious human connections—whether it is the ways we connect with our pets or the story of psychiatrist Hans Berger, inventor of electroencephalography, falling off a horse and his sister sensing a disaster. Synchrony, writes Murphy, is “a natural wonder that is far from fully understood. Some researchers suspect it may be an amplification or elaboration of so-called quantum entanglement—a phenomenon Albert Einstein famously called ‘spooky action at a distance’—where interacting subatomic particles begin to behave as one, even when separated in time and space.” Although the writing is smooth and accessible, the author’s theme is spread too thin and feels more speculative than scientific. From a 2022 TikTok video of a woman accepting a sandwich, to generosity at a Dairy Queen drive-through, to lawyers acting out psychodramas, the colorful variety begs the question: Isn’t everything synchrony? Is texting an emoji really “trying to compensate for the missing facial expression and body language that humans rely on to find resonance?” That all being said, the last chapter’s analysis of our current epidemic of loneliness (and its causes) is compelling and concerning (warning: tech companies are hiring neuroscientists to make us click more deeply with their digital content), the examples and quotes throughout are frequently insightful (even if, like many psychological studies, a reiteration of common sense), and what the book lacks in rigor and cohesiveness, the author makes up for with her enthusiastic vibe.

An often obvious but diverting jaunt through the nature of human connection.