How to Focus Like It's 1990

[PatSeg]

In 2004, Gloria Mark, a professor of informatics at the University of California, Irvine, watched knowledge workers go about a typical day at the office. Using a stopwatch, she noted every time they switched tasks on their computer, moving from a spreadsheet to an email to a web page to a different web page and back to the spreadsheet. She found that people averaged just two and a half minutes on a given task before switching.

When Dr. Mark repeated the experiment in 2012, the average time office workers spent on a task had dropped to 75 seconds. And it has continued to drop from there.

“Our attention spans while on our computers and smartphones have become short — crazily short — as we now spend about 47 seconds on any screen on average,” Dr. Mark wrote in her new book, “Attention Span: A Groundbreaking Way to Restore Balance, Happiness and Productivity.”

Anyone who’s tried to study for an exam, write a report or read a book knows how hard it is to concentrate for significant chunks of time. Typically, digital devices are to blame for the disruption. The internet is omniscient, our phones omnipotent, and together they demand and destroy our concentration. Even when we really try to focus on a task, we often find we can’t, our eyes glazing over and our thoughts drifting.

More at link.
No paywall for this article:

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/09/well/mind/concentration-focus-distraction.html?unlocked_article_code=qyW86yHZISBpqaHg8O7a87TcLGB2MOEF0xx4MmheK-FrU_p1NV-ztrB_COvF4m-aQlFsb0SB-sMuq4ufU0NPfG3H1vzU823S6K2wi9cE5OgsXfNDILqclnrD3rxLbtCoC5REq6ViC1kB5b4wNGjGggVRg6rmSXtEij12cDeFfyTLAtEEnndVxKQY_kKKVXcdFniU2ciUHMMlajCGEaVlRcoxn70HM8zm5GfiyzNIFI4SFcqkPnksG8GpSFao7XxBOP4sm2XlHxiuLgFCAVPROFWfMtGRcglJQ_pIcu4wFzvTkW6klJBsB1-yst5RJUIglHU4m_9AxN5IjWGoi-pzFDmKJC9cUEelNKK93g&smid=share-url

[SheltieLover]

1. Have you seen the 60 Minutes segment on brainhacking?

[intrepidity]

3. "The race to the bottom... of the brainstem."

Great descriptive phrase.

[PatSeg]

5. No, I haven't

Thanks. I'm going to watch it after I'm done bouncing around on the computer!!!

[hlthe2b]

2. I'd like to read this now, but

I can't focus.


Bookmarked for later, though. (Right after I read that post on procrastination)...

[PatSeg]

6. Ha, ha, ha!

Yeah, I didn't read the article in one sitting, which I found rather ironic. However, I DID finish it!

[momta]

4. Have you seen this interview

I plan on reading this book. It's called "Stolen Focus" and is on this very topic.

Also, Jon Favreau's YouTube series called "Offline" is excellent. He talks about all the things "online" that affect the rest of our lives. One of my favorite interviews he's done is with Max Fisher who wrote "The Chaos Machine" which I just finished reading. It's excellent.

[PatSeg]

8. Thank you

I added both books to my "wish list" on Amazon.

And now I have two videos to watch as well. Starting to feel overwhelmed!

[Hortensis]

7. Good article, thanks. One of our brilliant grandsons, an only child

who's spent much of his life on "digital devices," has been having difficulty with writing assignments, even though we've tried to get him to realize how easy it is to just knock out a paper. It just occurred to me to wonder if this might be at the root of his "I hate writing" problem.

[PatSeg]

9. Oh, I'm sure it is

And I think most young people today are probably having similar issues. I can't imagine being a teacher today.

[Hortensis]

10. I often wonder and can't either. But more important than ever.

Maybe it'll draw more of the kind who vacillate between teaching English and joining the special forces, or a career in public service as a Democrat.

[PatSeg]

11. It won't be long before

all the old-school teachers will be replaced by teachers raised with digital devices from an early age. That is a rather disturbing thought. Then we'll have both students and teachers with limited attention spans!

[Hortensis]

12. Also the administrators and education professionals who

assign the teachers a schedule of predesigned online assignments to have the students do so they can then check them off their own list.

My DIL, who's trialing a new spec ed function/position, was just commenting yesterday that she'd been deviating by having the children do more assignments with her as a group in an attempt to get them to take in more, and fewer alone on their laptops. She'd run it by her department head, but an evaluation's next week and she's inevitably wondering what the consensus will be on things like this initiative.

[PatSeg]

13. It would be really sad

if they were to discourage such an initiative.

I know we live in a new and different age, but I really fear for the future of young people who are being educated today. I am envisioning some dystopian future where no one can read or write anything that is more than a couple of pages. There are so many mindless distractions and it is easy to get caught up in it all. I know young people who can't even sit through an entire movie.

[Hortensis]

14. Yes. Possible impact on independent reading seems most alarming.

Hopefully, other factors will more than offset. We've never had so much wonderful stuff readily available TO read.

[PatSeg]

15. Yes hopefully

To live in an age when "so much wonderful stuff" is available to pretty much everyone, but the ability to use and understand it could be diminishing rapidly. Such a sad thought.