The ding sound hits your ears as your phone screen glows, and you see a notification from YouTube, a video from your favorite content creator. You were just working on your work project, but this video looks interesting, so you start to watch it. In our modern world, it is hard to focus without the constant distraction of the cell phone, notifications, social media, video games. Digital entertainment is everywhere, distracting us everyday, leading us to feel unproductive, unfulfilled, and meaningless. Today I will break down what is going on and what to do about this:
- What is your attention span
- What is causing the low attention spans today
- Steps to combat attention issues
What is your attention span
Your attention span is the amount of time you spend on a task before you become distracted with something else.
In the United States, the average attention span is around 8-10 minutes. (Judah Schiller, Tree Top Therapy) This short attention span is astounding because many of the tasks in life are longer than 8-10 minutes such as tests, lectures, and meetings. Having a short attention span can lead to decreased productivity, more mistakes, and overall poor results. So, what causes a short attention span? Most people believe it is technology, social media and all the other distractions that break up our days. The ability to focus is like a muscle and can be trained to last longer, but this ability is being lost due to the many distractions in our lives.
What is causing the low attention spans today
Device Notifications
Phone notifications are one of the quintessential examples of a distraction due to the immense design put into them to grab our attention. The red color of the notification symbol is attuned to our natural sense as from a very young age. children can recognize the color red. The notification sounds and structures are very hard for people to ignore and requires much willpower to resist. Many notifications are from programs, and they encourage us to interact with our platform. These notifications are generated to distract us and may or may not be important, like a notification that a friend liked a post on Instagram, or a YouTuber you follow posted a new video. Social media forms contribute to a short attention span.
Short Form Media
Short form social media such as TikTok, YouTube Shorts, Instagram reels, and many more are created to perfectly grab our attention and keep us hooked. Since this form of media is so short with most shorts lasting from 30 seconds to a minute, it is easy to just look at one, but eventually we become sucked in and keep viewing more and more. This has happened to me on many occasions. I started watching at 2pm and a couple of shorts later, it’s the middle of the night. This is not an exaggeration as these shorts are good at grabbing our attention. The constant cycle of looking at one more is deadly because even if one short one is bad, there is always the chance that the next one will grab our attention. The content is modeled in a way that grabs our attention with bright colors, catchy music, and reactive content. These shorts have edits with fun music and flashing images which are more engaging than just a regular video. Or they feature controversial content where people say and do crazy stuff that grabs our attention. If smartphones were boring, many of the billion/trillion-dollar companies would not be racking in the crazy amounts of money that they do. One feature of many social media sites is the refresh feature. This feature is like a slot machine for our brains as it may reveal something good that we want to watch. I know I am guilty of refreshing on YouTube tons of times just to try to find something interesting to watch. This feature is on tons of apps because it prevents us from getting bored and keeps us scrolling. The color of our phones is another trick to grab our attention just like the flashy advertisements apps that are bright warm colors like red. Eye tracking tests have shown that humans are attracted to warmer colors. In the wild, dangers such as poisonous fruit, blood, and fire could all be warm, so it is ingrained in our DNA to be reactive to brighter colors.
These tricks used by social media are more effective on younger people. Children’s brains are still developing, and childhood is one of the most important developmental stages of one’s entire life. This generation of iPad kids (including myself) is used to being constantly entertained but this comes at the cost of important activities like talking to real humans in person rather than online. These days, most young children use their iPads during meals, or are begging their parents to use their phones. These activities are like getting kids addicted to drugs at a young age. Technology is omnipresent in our modern lives, and addicted children have become our present and future. Our brains are not meant to handle the influx of information and content on the internet and most of it being random nonsense that may not help us in our lives. How are we to combat this social media apocalypse?
Steps to combat attention issues
1. Put yourself in a distraction free environment
You should try to put yourself in a place that is quiet and away from other people. You should try to be in an area without your phone which might be tough, but it is important to not be distracted. This advice may seem obvious, but I have a few improvements on it. You should also try to vary where you try to be productive. I have found that when I am at home, I get distracted even when I follow the advice above. At home, you are used to being distracted so it is important to move to a different environment. This could be a library or other quiet places such as a separate part of your house or outside at a park.
2. Disable notifications
Disabling notifications is important to remaining focused. You could try using the “Do Not Disturb” mode on your phone. Also, go into your settings and disable all notifications for all apps. If this approach is too extreme for you, try to aim to keep notifications just in the notification center.
3. Avoid watching short form content
Short form content has been shown to be the most destructive to our attention spans because the videos are so short and provide a lot of quick dopamine. I would recommend that if you are trying to use a platform that has short form such as YouTube on your phone, try to disable the short form content that shows up in your home page.
4. Try using grayscale
Our brains are activated by color. Going into settings and turning on grayscale or at least turning down the vibrancy of the colors on our phone can help us from spontaneously clicking apps on our phones.
5. Practice focusing
As I mentioned before, the average attention span of someone in the United States was around 8-10 minutes, so it is crucial that you practice focused attention for longer periods of time. I recommend that you use a timer and try to practice focusing for 20 minutes at a time. Just like a muscle, you can slowly increase your attention span in 5- minute increments until you reach an hour. Once you reach an hour, it is difficult to continue doing focused work so make sure to take breaks once you reach this point.
6. Organize
Trying to work in a messy space can be distracting to our brains. It is much easier to work on a clear desk without clutter. This is true for me as I find trying to study on a a desk with tons of stuff on it is more distracting. I think you’ll find it easier to get into a flow when studying on a clean desk. Additionally, your head might be clearer if the the environment in which you live is clean.
7. Use apps and programs to remove distracting sites
There are many apps and programs that can help you restrict social media sites on your browser which can be helpful in preventing yourself from getting distracted.
8. Get out into nature
As humans, we benefit from being in a natural environment. Try to get outside for at at least 30 minutes every day through walking. It is beneficial for your health in general to get outside. The American Psychological Association has actually shown that going outside has improved attention spans. American Psychological Association
9. Exercise
Exercise is a great way to help your attention span. I find that after I play tennis or exercise, it is much easier to focus on work. I believe that for me, exercise tires my body out so any excess energy I had before is not distracting. Exercise helps our brain’s function, so it is easier to concentrate.
10. Sleep
While I talked about in a previous blog, sleep is important for many functions in our life whether it be disease prevention, memory consolidation, and healing. To increase brain function, sleep is one of the most important things in our life. Sleep can also help us focus on our work and have enough energy to maintain the willpower to push ourselves when we get distracted.
11. Optimal time
Try experimenting to find a time when you work best. For me, working in the morning is better because I get less distracted at this time. Whatever time works for you, it can be easier to remain focused in a day that is natural for your body. Sometimes it can be difficult to remain focused after meals so keep that in mind.
12. Gamify it
Because our brains are so naturally adapted to playing video games, learning things in a game-like way can satiate our brain#39;s activity and help us to focus better on the stuff We are learning. Try using apps like Quizlet, Kahoot and Quizizz, which have games for learning.
13. Using timers
When under time pressure it is easier for our brains to lock in and focus. This is how timers can help; you can challenge yourself to complete a task under a certain time. This exercise can help you to practice your focusing ability.
14. Listen to certain kinds of music
You should try to listen to music without lyrics as they can subconsciously distract our brains. Also try to avoid music that is too energetic which can also be distracting. Try listening to lofi music or classical music for the best effect. Sometimes even working in silence can be best.
15. Try being bored
Because our brains are always being bombarded with information from our phones, our brains are not used to being in a bored state. Try just sitting in your seat for 10 minutes doing nothing, just staring at the wall. Time might start to slow and then your brain will feel that doing anything will be better than just staring at a wall because that is how our brains are wired.
In summary, understanding what is deteriorating our attention spans is important to combating this issue. I hope that you can take away some beneficial information about our attention spans. Your attention span is something you can improve. Being able to focus in our distracting world can be an valuable asset in our competitive world.