Attention Span: A World-Wide Problem
Is the modern digital age sabotaging our attention spans? Join me as we delve into the pervasive effects of media consumption and uncover actionable steps to mitigate its impact on our productivity and well-being.
A recent study has shown that attention span had dropped to around 8 seconds today, “shrinking 25% in just a few years”. Is this a result of the media’s influence on us? How can we work to fix this? We will examine, why it is happening, the negative effects, and some ways to fix them!
Why Is It Happening?
At the start of this year, my professor, Andy Gustafson, threw some interesting figures up on the board that caught my attention. They were:
| 1965 | Current | |
|---|---|---|
| Average Length of TV News Sound Bite | 45 seconds | 8 seconds |
| Average Length of TV Advertisement | 53 seconds | 0-30 seconds |
| Number of Messages Sent/Received by Typical US Business Person | 200 words | 600 words |
This poses many questions for us. Is the media to blame? Have the slowed-down ads, the social media scrolling, and the sheer amount of information we process all contributed to this decrease in attention span? How is this bad for us?
What Are The Negative Effects?
According to Healthline, some negative effects of a low attention span include:
- Poor performance at work or school
- Inability to complete daily tasks
- Missing important details or information
- Communication difficulties in relationships
- Poor health related to neglect and inability to practice healthy habits
But why is it important? How is it applicable in the long term? At my current stage in life, I am approaching my final years in college, and preparing to enter the real world. Having a low attention span can be a real deal-breaker for your employer. The amount of information you retain from a meeting could be poor, your overall performance, timeliness to complete tasks, and communication in presentations and in general all may suffer from this. So, knowing it is an issue for me today and will continue to be in the future, I think it is vital we dive deep into the problem and discover some solutions!
Solutions To This Problem
Meditation
This is something I have talked about before, but the benefits of meditation are just incredible. Taking time to just be with yourself, at the moment, will help to increase your awareness, focus, and attention.
You can see results by slowly increasing the amount of time you meditate, and it is a great way to scale the difficulty. Start off focusing on just your breath, and continue to expand your skills to more challenging things like visual imagery. There are a ton of great online resources and videos that walk you through the entire session, and that is where I would start. I use Balance. I love the fact that it offers different voices, lengths, and types of sessions. I also love that there are plans you can do, as well as individual sessions for more specific instances. finally, I love that it tells you what skill you are working on, and as you do it more it “levels up”. This is the idea of gamification that I have talked about before, and it gives me a desire to keep meditating to level up my skills and is an awesome way to stay motivated. Here is a link that I have that will give you one year free:
(p.s. I don’t benefit from this code, I genuinely love this app!)
Reading
While it may seem obvious, reading is incredible for your attention span and many other things! Reading has been shown to stimulate your mind, forcing your brain to hone in on skills like memory, critical thinking, etc. Taking 10-20 minutes out of your day to actively read is a great place to start. I noticed that I could read longer and that reading for assignments and classwork became easier as I developed this skill. You can read any book you would like, and finding one you have an interest in is critical. I tend to mix up what I read, ranging from genres fantasy ao self-help. But whatever you choose to read, there will still be benefits from it, and the best thing to do is start sooner than later!
Exercise (especially without music)
One of my first posts was about the benefits of exercising without music. You can check out that article here:
Joe Closky
To give a brief overview, exercising in general stimulates your brain into a creative thinking mode. Listening to music tends to kill this, as your brain instead changes to thinking about what song you want to play next and the words to the song. While all of that is distracting, it is also training your brain to be focused only when the right song is on.
Opting for no music in the gym will allow you to do more creative thinking, but it will also allow you to work on your focus. It is really easy to get distracted
Taking breaks
You do not have to work constantly. Give your brain time to rest and take breaks to reset. Over time, doing this will prevent burnout, increase focus, as well as improve overall productivity. One method for this is by practicing the Pomodoro technique which you can find more bout here:
Joe Closky
Reducing distractions
One of the most helpful things you can implement is reducing distractions. The primary distraction to limit would be your phone! too often all of us get caught up scrolling through social media or shopping online. This kills your attention span and distracts you from your work.
One way I approach this problem is by using an app called Forest. This app allows me to plant “trees” for an allotted amount of time. The tree will grow over that time, and if I go off the app, I kill the tree. It sounds dumb, but it is another way to motivate myself to stay off my phone while having some fun doing it! Here is a link to the app, as well as a referral code you can type in: Enter 527XAAQSG to be a part of Forest!
Conclusion
A decreasing attention span is a real problem many of us are facing. It is time for us all to take action and work towards fixing this problem. For more information on solutions, check out “How to Increase Attention Span: Exercises, Tips & Resources”.I hope this was a useful post for some of you. I found it very interesting and applicable to my own life, and I hope the same can be true for one of you!
Don't let a dwindling attention span hold you back! Join me in implementing the proven strategies outlined in this article to improve focus and reclaim control over your mental clarity. Let's empower ourselves to overcome distractions and achieve greater success.
