One of the great pulls of urban life is its constant supply of inspiration and information. It is a privilege to step outside and put your eye up to its kaleidoscope, though it is possible to look for too long. From time to time, I'll detect patches of fog around my thinking after periods of high intake and too little processing.

I experience processing as a kind of subconscious sorting. It occurs when the mind is released from immediate tasks and stimuli. Distinct from active problem-solving or creativity, it is closer to a waking dream: a loose background state in which the mind is allowed to wander unproductively while situational awareness relaxes.

Broadly, I sense it is becoming harder to pause tasks and stimuli long enough for processing to take place. Moments of micro-boredom in the city once provided small openings for wandering thought: the wait for an elevator, a minute at the traffic lights, or perhaps the train ride home. Smartphone use now makes it difficult not to polyfill those openings immediately.

Earlier this week, I stood behind two people on a crowded train, unable to avert my eyes from the speed-scroll of their feeds. It is a rare intimacy to glimpse a stranger's algorithm, and I watched as two parallel, highly personalised streams of text and imagery passed across their retinas and straight into their consciousness. Instead of spending twenty minutes digesting the events of the day, they accumulated another hundred pieces of novel information.