Maintaining focus is becoming an increasingly difficult task in the age of screens and mobile phones, whose notifications interrupt us in all our work and activities.
However, is our attention span constantly and irreversibly shrinking, or do we just need to take a break to rest our overloaded cognitive resources?
Almost a decade ago, a magazine article Time went viral when it was reported that humans have a shorter attention span than a goldfish – just eight seconds on average.
While this is incorrect (the author’s claims are based on a small sample of web users and it is currently impossible to measure the attention span of a goldfish), observations about our experiences, increasing rates of ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) diagnoses, and teachers warning of the increasing students’ inability to focus, may lead us to believe that our attention is compromised in the age of digital information. And what does science say on this topic?
What is attention span anyway?
Generally speaking, attention refers to directing our consciousness. In our consciousness, we can keep a certain amount of information at the same time, so this implies focusing a limited cognitive resource on a certain stimulus or several of them, while others are excluded.
Attention is a multifaceted concept, but when we talk about attention span, we generally mean “sustained attention” or “attentional persistence.” This is the length of time in which we can focus our awareness on a given stimulus – a task, an object, an idea or even a person – without losing focus.
Are our attention spans really shrinking?
Although there is a huge gap in knowledge when it comes to measuring attention span over time, especially in pre-teens and adolescents, the work of Dr. Gloria Marks, author of Attention span (Attention Span2023) offers some insight.
Dr. Marks’ research shows that the average length of time people spend on one computer screen before switching to another has decreased from 2.5 minutes to 47 seconds over the past two decades.
In another study, which used screen recording technology to analyze the time spent in front of a mobile device screen, researchers from Pennsylvania State University and Stanford University found that the median number of times participants used their phones was 228.
Moreover, on average, each session lasted only 10 seconds. These numbers give us clues as to what is happening with our attention. Although it is difficult to definitively say from this research whether our attention span is actually decreasing, we can draw some conclusions.
The mobile phone tempts us with notifications
When our attention is distracted, our ability to learn is impaired because the new object of our focus interferes with memory encoding, which is how we store information in memory. Encoding requires enough engagement with a given object to move that information from short-term memory to long-term memory, so if we’re constantly engaging with new things during this process, our engagement—and thus our learning—suffers.
Our cognitive resources are limited, so while we may think we’re multitasking while working and responding to text messages at the same time, we’re actually just quickly switching from task to task while pausing the previous one.
Switching to another task has a high cost. Dr. Marks estimates that it takes us an average of 25 minutes to return to our original task when interrupted.
Marks offers the analogy of a whiteboard: when we begin a task, we collect the information we need for that task on our internal whiteboard, which is the limited space we have for our working memory. When we’re interrupted or switched to another task, we have to erase everything and re-fill the board with the information needed for the new task, then erase it and write again to return to the original task, and so on until we’ve completed both tasks . That is, all tasks.
The dopamine loop of social networks is one of the dangers
The more we have to write and erase on our whiteboard, the greater the cost of cognitive resources and the less focused or productive we are.
Our attention is influenced by our environment. This is well known to those who want us to notice them in the age of the attention economy. Of the 228 times people reached for their phones in a study by a scientific team from Pennsylvania and Stanford, 34 percent of the time was spent on social networks.
There’s a good reason for this – known as the social media dopamine loop. Notifications (commonly known as notifications) activate the reward system in our brain, releasing dopamine (the “pleasure” neurotransmitter) and motivating us to come back for more in a cyclical loop.
That’s why you might feel the urge to check your phone even if you haven’t received a notification—your brain is looking for that dopamine.
How can we increase our attention span?
Although our attention can be influenced by the information age we live in, it is important to recognize that ultimately it is up to us to choose how we direct our focus.
Therefore, it is better to ask the question – How can we have more control over our attention?
We can change our environment, even minimally.
Eliminating potential distractions when possible will reduce the chances of you falling into a cycle of switching from task to task. Leaving your phone in another room or in your purse will help disrupt the dopamine loop of social media, extending the period during which our brains can focus without craving dopamine.
We need to learn to recognize that attention differs in relation to tasks, that is, it can be specific to certain jobs.
One of the reasons it’s so hard to say definitively whether or not attention spans are shrinking is that it depends on what we’re doing. We might be able to watch an entire two-hour action-packed movie, but we’ll start fidgeting within 10 minutes of a nature documentary. Incorporating storytelling and interactivity are two proven ways to increase the likelihood that we will be able to maintain focus.
Recognize that attention is a limited resource, so take breaks – figuratively and literally.
Our attention is a limited cognitive resource, which means it slowly wears out as we use it up throughout the day. Because of this, our attention span is likely to be the largest in the morning, after we have (hopefully!) had a good night’s rest and sleep. It also means that if we feel ourselves losing focus, the best thing we can do for our attention is to take a break.
Pay attention to attention
There is some evidence to suggest that attention spans are shrinking on average, but this may say more about our evolving environments than our actual ability to sustain attention. While there are things that make it more or less difficult to stay focused, ultimately we have power over how we choose to focus our attention.
For those who are concerned, there are proven ways to improve the control over our attention, and those who have been in contact with digital spaces since the beginning of their lives should be supported in this.
Source: www.sitoireseto.com
