Slashdot Mirror
Ask Slashdot: Dealing With Electronics-Induced Inattentiveness?
An anonymous reader writes: I am a graduate student in his twenties who used to be able to read dozens and dozens of lengthy books in his childhood. Over the years, I have noticed that my attention span and ability to concentrate has decreased noticeably, seemingly in synchronization with society's increased connectedness with the Internet and constant stimulation from computers and mobile devices alike. I have noticed that myself and others seem to have a difficult time really sitting down to read anything or focus on anything relatively boring for even more than ten seconds (the "TL;DR Generation," as I sometimes call it).
I see it when socializing with others or even during a professor's lecture. I have tried leaving my mobile phone at home and limiting myself to fewer browser tabs in an effort to regain concentration that I believe has been lost in recent years. Nonetheless, this is an issue that has begun to adversely affect my academic studies and may only get worse in time. What advice do fellow Slashdot users have with regard to reclaiming what has been lost? Should such behaviors simply be accepted as a sign of the times?
I see it when socializing with others or even during a professor's lecture. I have tried leaving my mobile phone at home and limiting myself to fewer browser tabs in an effort to regain concentration that I believe has been lost in recent years. Nonetheless, this is an issue that has begun to adversely affect my academic studies and may only get worse in time. What advice do fellow Slashdot users have with regard to reclaiming what has been lost? Should such behaviors simply be accepted as a sign of the times?
I can't handle summaries more than 3-4 lines long, can someone sum it up for me?
Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. Polar Scope Align for iOS
Find something to actively do. Have no more broadcasted stimulation than the radio. By doing something you'll focus your attention.
I tend to work on machinery or cars in my workshop. Still can be very technical when building an engine from a bare block with mains, but needs focus.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
Quit social media, quit 4chan, quit masturbating (BIRM) quit reddit, quit facebook, and go back to reading books again.
Edit your hosts file or put in firewalls if you have to. Get an old flipphone that makes texting difficult and browsing near impossible. Disable your data plan.
Use a hand-me-down laptop/desktop pc that is so horribly slow it's painful to browse modern websites on.
You have the power of time management. Accepting a low attention span as a sign of the times is giving up, like an addict.
As you noticed, you are basically trying to force yourself to do something that you find "relatively boring". Motivation and focus cannot easily be manipulated, because they are deep-rooted manifestations of how you function as a human being. So my advice would be to try and do something "relatively interesting".
How?
Tried and true: Yoga, meditation, breathing exercises, walks in nature, do what you love to do (and which gives you energy).
Even just a mindfulness class or book might help you in the right direction.
Don't become a leaf in the wind. Take charge.
Do you need your phone or your laptop during lectures? Do they need to be on the network? Turn your phone onto airport mode, and disable the laptop's NIC. When socializing, maybe start a game/contest with your friends. First person to check their phone buys the next round of drinks.
If you're a student you have to research and write; try the same thing in your personal life as well. I've written a little on the tl;dr phenomenon: the point is not so much to swim against the current of society but rather to follow the flow of your own native ability. In any event, avoid at all costs the solution to which so many become slaves (Adderall).
Development is programmable; Discovery is not programmable. (Fuller)
Start reading all those pdfs you have downloaded on your computer, but from your smartphone. Uninstall Candy Crush and any newslinks you surely have. Let Ebola, Snowden, Putin, Ferguson live on without your knowledge. Four hundred 15 page pdf-files takes a while to read, digest and understand. A 450 page book by Pynchon won't help your career, since you're a Slashdot-reader. Those pdf-files may well do just that.
Forget about how it affects your academic studies -- the academic world has always been a far stretch from reality, so the older most people get, the less it makes sense to study and learn in heavily structured environments.
Now, regarding the distraction, here's what I do.
Every week, I measure my happiness. There are countless psych-industry surveys, and a few very official ones, but any technique that makes sense for you will work just as well. It can be the number of times you smiled, the ease with which you slept, your willingness to go to work on monday, the number of times you went out with friends, the amount of chocolate you ate, or didn't eat, whatever. Your measure of happiness is all that matters, and any will do, provided that it's the same technique for six months at a time.
So every week, measure your happiness. Again, not your joy (emotion), your happiness (state of mind).
Buy an old "dumb" phone for $10. Basic address book, telephone, crappy texting. The kind of phone that was AMAZING in 1998. The kind of phone that only the very wealthy had in 1996. The kind of phone that only kings had in 1995. The kind of phone that only freakin' astronauts had in 1994.
Use it for two weeks instead of your modern smart phone.
See what happens to your happiness measurements. Maybe they'll go up. Maybe they'll go down.
The point is simply this. Every week, make an arbitrary change from what you're doing today, to something that is or was perfectly amazing to someone else. See if you become a happier person. Forget about measuring by price, or appearance, or opinion, or status. Just look at your own face in the mirror, or feel your own face with your hands, and see what makes you happier.
Do so objectively, and within a year you'll transform so many different parts of your life that you won't even recognize it anymore -- because it'll be a perfect extension of you.
I bought a piece of furniture that most people haven's seen seen the 16th century. It doesn't match any other piece of furniture in the house. But it's super-comfortable, and my favourite place in the house. Sitting in it is an instant-soothe.
1) Experiment. 2) Measure. 3) Adjust. 4) Measure. 5) Iterate.
I've only recently gotten a smartphone, after being a holdout for a long time. Before that, one of my beefs with smartphone users was that they were always reaching for their phones whenever they might otherwise have been bored. It seemed to me that they had lost something valuable: time to contemplate.
However, now that I have a smartphone, I no longer think about that.
As with anything worthwhile in life this requires willpower. I'm surprised it took you all the way to grad school to have trouble plowing through boring text books. The truth of the matter is no matter how far we've advanced we aren't really any better at shoving knowledge into your brain. The real change that has happened in the Google universe is that the philosophy of "Why memorize it when I can Google it?" has taken over. Unless you have some form of ADHD (honestly severely over-diagnosed but does exist) then the ability to sit down and read something long that is not interesting falls to pure willpower. I didn't want to do homework either but if I didn't my grades suffered. "Consequences" All of these distractions that are more "interesting" to you can wait. Don't blame technology for giving you more distractions to choose from.
I'm also a graduate student who has noticed a reduction in my (and my peers') ability to concentrate. It's a daily struggle to fight back against sources of distraction, but I've made some small changes that have helped me and might help you (and other Slashdotters) as well:
- I try to print really important papers and read them on paper. It is wasteful (recycle nonessential papers if desired), but pulp has no tabs;
- If I read analog media at my desk, I turn off my monitors to avoid notifications;
- I turn my phone on silent and flip it over on the desk for the same notification avoidance--works well with OS' that allow repeated callers to ring through while other notifications you designate keep the phone silent;
- I try to be a more "engaged" reader, taking notes on the paper (see my first point) to force my own engagement with the material. My mind wanders if I'm bored, which is entirely possible with academic material, so to stave off the boredom I'll do more to insert myself into the reading process.
Baby steps to change habits over time.
Ditch the electronics, and the temptations.
Seriously. I am a programmer working on games for smartphones, but... I don't own a smartphone, I make do with a five-year-old flip-phone that does nothing other than make phone calls.
I don't have a facebook account, or a twitter account.
I've unsubscribed from most of the mailing lists I used to be on, and dropped most of the forums I used to frequent.
And you know what? I don't miss any of it. I have time to read books. I have time to play long video games.
Your brain is deteriorating, and in addition to your short attention-span, you're imagining causation that isn't there to try to externalize the problem.
As a tech I tend to change jobs and work with people I've worked with before, we tend to pull each other along to better places. I have had a reputation for an incredible ability to focus on the task at hand and tune out the world around me. Part of being an aspie geek.
My old coworkers thought it was hilarious to "pull me out of the zone" intentionally.
The end result is I can still focus rather well, but I'm now more attentive to what's around me. I'm more easily distracted than I used to be - but I've noticed a compounding issue - so is everyone else.
It seems like the late 90's - mid 00's that everyone was more able to do their job. As time has gone by I've noticed that in contrast to the coworkers that pulled me out of the zone intentionally that everyone around me feels the need to chat, interrupt, and generally draw my attention away from what I'm doing, regardless of age. Part of what makes me a valuable work - my ability to focus and get things done - is completely contrary to the way every place I've been in the past decade+ does business. When I first started this career field in my late teens it seemed accepted that people had to focus on what they were doing, now it's a full time IRC channel in the real world the Endless September interruptions. To top it off some of the worst offenders when it comes to interrupting are coworkers I had over a decade ago elsewhere. I still get projects done, but it's nowhere near as efficiently as I used to be able to do.
The preceding post was not a Slashvertisement.
If your attention span is suffering that dramatically, there might be something medical going on.
Moderating "-1, Disagree" is simple censorship. Have the guts to post your opinion.
I can only answer this with the example of my own life. I was in roughly the same situation, and decided that like most things, it was the result of habit.
My first step was to get a notebook and mark down what I was doing throughout the day. If I was reading an article while checking email, responding to facebook messages, and bidding on ebay, I wrote that down as unproductive time instead of "reading". I generally wrote down any activity I did for more than 10-15 minutes, and it turned out that most of my day was either "work" or unproductive time. I also began to optimize things like cooking, eating, and showering because I realized how much of my time they took up.
Once I was aware of how I actually spent my time, it was much easier to break these habits. Even easier than breaking a habit is replacing a habit though, so I got a whiteboard and wrote down the things I wanted to do each day besides things that were required like work. I usually had a 5 or 6 things a day once I lumped things together like "Complete errands and pay bills". Most books with psychological leanings tend to recommend changing a single habit at a time. I really think that's likely the best approach for most people. I did slowly eliminate unproductive time even though I attempted to change more things at once. It's all worked out for me as expected and now I spend most of my spare time playing piano, building things(robots usually), or bicycling.
Overall this approach took me 2 years. I can say my attention span has improved dramatically, and I'm vastly happier right now and in better shape. I've also noticed that many of the time wasting activities I used to partake in have been organically eliminated from my life(I no longer have facebook messenger on my phone, I don't own a tv anymore, I avoid getting caught up in the drama that pops up every week on the internet).
Good luck with your own attention resurrection.
If you don't actually concentrate on doing things for extended periods of time, you're going to lose your ability to do it.
So when you have some spare time instead of flipping through slashdot or reddit why not try actually doing something for an extended period of time? Read a book, do a hobby, go for a walk, take a bike ride for fun, go to a coffee shop and casually read a big newspaper, do the crossword puzzle. I read a lot of novels and do some woodworking on the side. A quiet evening in the shop with hand tools and the radio in the background is a great way to decompress.
You may only need to cool brain down from fast paced stressful modern connected life. Get yourself a bottle of complex wine, like a Chianti, have a glass or two over twenty five minute time span. Then read. Put the cork in bottle and store in dark cool place (not fridge) for the next day's reading.
There may be other ways to relax,
Sorry but your reasoning is bullshit. Before the internet people blamed cable tv, before cable it was music or tv or radio, the reality is that you're choosing not to read.
Smartphone apps are intentionally designed to grab your attention. The human brain actually triggers the reward center each time you get a new text, or email, or social media message. The more you do those things the more your brain is trained to react instantly to a new event, thus breaking your concentration on whatever you were doing.
If you want to really focus on something, it's probably best to disable your notifications so that only emergency events get through. (Or even turn the thing off completely if you can.)
I noticed a similar tendency in my own behavior. There are two things that I've done about it. First, around an hour before bedtime, all the electronics go off. Pull out a book of whatever you like to read for recreation. Force yourself to start reading, but don't force yourself to keep reading, because then it will feel like a chore. The deal is that you can read as long as you'd like, but when you put the book down, the light needs to go off too. Second, almost everyone has some kind of creative endeavor that they can pursue on their computer. In my case, there are a small number of programming projects that I've started. Writing software requires long periods of concentration, and if you're working on something interesting, then you'll have more incentive to stick to the project.
If you're unhappy with your level of concentration, then find something you enjoy concentrating on. Then when you're obligated to do something tedious, you at least have the attention span to properly apply yourself to the task.
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
Seriously. Just 10 minutes a day will help you improve your ability to focus over longer periods. If you don't know how it works, I recommend getting some professional instruction before you start.
I am not interested in articles about life extension advancements.
Buy yourself a kindle... no not a tablet, that gives you too much access to the internet. Then that hour you normally spend sitting on your laptop while watching tv... spend it reading. We live in the golden age of literature... you have more books at your fingertips that anyone in history.
Yes Francis, the world has gone crazy.
1. Meditate every day, even if only for five minutes.
2. Mindfully approach everything you do.
3. Profit.
Here is a revolutionary new way to sit in a lecture...
Sit in your seat, pull out a pen, pull out a pad of paper ("spiral notebook", "Legal Pad", whatever).
If the professor/lecturer says something important... write it down. If the professor is boring, doodle idly while you listen.
Leave the laptop, ipad, phone at home.
"Should such behaviors simply be accepted as a sign of the times?"
No.
Is being 50 pounds overweight acceptible because of all of the fast food restaurants?! It's a problem. If you want to get your attention span back, buy a 7 dollar paperback book and actually read it. Not a comic book. A book without pictures. Your attention span will return. And throw out your smartphone, delete your social network accounts, and learn a new skill. Problem = solved. If you're attention span is desolving, it's because you're not doing mentally taxing tasks.
Welcome to growing older. Notice how there aren't as many Olympians in their 30's? The defending World Champion in Chess isn't even a quarter century old. I realize that your question was regarding new media and attention spans, but life is phenomenological in nature and you are describing an experience shared among aging humans for eons. Next stop: middle age. But don't worry, you figure out a work around to your diminishing capacity.
I have the same problem as the submitter. I have been trying a two-pronged approach:
* I've taken up slow reading, where one day a week I take a book to a local coffee shop to sit and read with no electronics. This is really hard but good to do. * Second, I got a keyboard case for my ipad (clamcase brand). The case is substantial enough that it feels (and looks) like a full laptop. It gives me the "limited" experience that you mention, where things like web browser and email are accessible but a little more PITA to fluidly switch between everything.
That is all.
That was my first thought. You are not a kid anymore and finishing harry potter isn't the most pressing thing you have to do today.
Grown ups are pulled in 10 different ways all the time. Get used to it and get off my lawn.
With your new multitasking powers gained from attention disorder you can get 3 PhD's at the same time.
The subject says it all, but let me give you specifics. My tools may not be the same as yours, but the same principles apply.
1. Mobile Device
I have a recent Android device. I have turned off all audible notifications in all applications except for phone calls and SMS messages. That brings the notifications down to the '90s dumb phone level. With notifications off, I choose when I'm going to pull my phone out and check things, and my device only interrupts me for important communications (text messages and phone calls).
Delete the Facebook and Twitter apps. You can use Facebook from the browser, and it's more secure that way anyway. Replace Twitter with Twidere, which by default must be launched and the feed updated manually, though it will notify you of direct messages and mentions. Sign out of Google Hangouts. This ensures it only bothers you for text messages, and when you're off your computer, you're signed out of instant messaging and people know they either have to call you or text you if they want you.
2. Computer
I use a KDE-based Linux desktop (currently Manjaro), so you may have to adapt this. KDE has this thing called Activities, which let you group apps by function. Currently, I have only two: Desktop and Social. These are two separate screens that I have to Meta-Tab to switch back and forth to see. I know there are virtual desktop utilities for Windows, and I think the Mac lets you put apps on various screens now, but you're probably guessing where I'm going with this. On the Social activity, I have my email client (KMail) and my Twitter client (Choqok). My email client is set not to show a notification or play a sound when a new message comes in: that would be a distraction. Same with the twitter client (you have to set the system tray icon to Hidden to accomplish this).
Using an email client is important: if you use a browser tab, guess what? You'll see that little number in parentheses telling you how many emails have come in, and you'll then be tempted to check it. Don't use your browser. Use a client.
And while I'm on the subject of browsers, you should have two plugins installed: an ad blocker and a flash blocker. For those sites (like Slashdot) that you want to support, let the ad blocker show ads, but keep the flash blocker active so the ads don't become intrusive. It's easier then to read articles and such without the ads getting in the way. For most sites, block it all. And for heaven's sake, don't keep a Facebook tab open. Visit the site when you want to visit it, and then close the tab.
With this system, when I'm supposed to be focusing on work, I'm on my Desktop activity. I never receive a notification for email or any social network. If I have to use a browser in the course of my work, which is a frequent happenstance, ads and flash are blocked by default, and I don't mix it with my email.
Does this mean I miss stuff? Never. Like you, I realized I have an attention span problem that I didn't have in the past. That attention span problem induces me to check things on a regular basis. What I've removed is the interruptions: I'm probably going to check all those things anyway. That increases the amount of time I'm able to focus, and if I feel the need to check something, my email and twitter feed are a Meta-Tab click away.
What I have found is that I've been able to find that focus and "lose myself" in my tasks again. I am no longer interrupted all the time by things that have a lower priority than what I'm currently doing, and I'm much happier with what I'm able to accomplish as a result.
I hope this helps!
No reason to blame your gizmos or the current culture of information and sharing. The thing to do is to work out your ability to focus on one thing at a time for longer periods of time. The way I work on this is via meditation. There are many techniques of meditating to choose from. They all do the same sort of thing: increase your focus and patience and ability to stay right were you are without seeking the relief of something more interesting. This is what is required to overcome the temptation of constant and immediate distraction. The fact that we have a super-wealth of distracting information is why so many people are turning to the age old practice of meditation to increase awareness and ability to stay present. Start small with 10 minutes a day at a particular time, and grow it. It works. It has always worked. But it takes some discipline, and it starts by recognizing that there is a problem. You're on your way already.
getting distracted by something else means you don't care enough about the subject to pay attention. if it wasn't a phone, you'd find another distraction because you don't care about whatever you're studying
you're ruining it for serious grad students by driving up tuition, and watering down the value of whatever degree you hope to achieve.
this is grad school, not the third grade- nobody's going to hold your hand through it, and nobody cares if you succeed or not.
http://www.artofmanliness.com/2014/01/30/your-concentration-training-program-11-exercises-that-will-strengthen-your-attention/
I can't find it at the moment but somewhere on this site they have a focus exercise where you take 5 minutes to really study something boring. A pencil, a paperclip, or anything you don't find interesting is good. By keeping yourself focused for 5 minutes (or more) you'll have several times that your attention will want to wander and you'll train yourself to be in control of where your focus is.
I use this with my son who is borderline ADD, and it helps.
I started meditating last spring and the butterfly effect it's had upon my life has been massive. My happiness level is way up. My ability to concentrate on tasks is way up. I've also ended up reading a lot more books as a result of this improved focus which have given me great ideas on improving my life further (keto diet, weight training, DIY renovation, etc). I cannot emphasize enough how awesome it is to take a daily vacation from everything that's going on outside and just focus on what's inside. In getting started, I originally challenged myself to try meditating daily for two weeks before work. By the fourth day, I'd decided I was definitely going to keep that habit. Give it a shot. What do you have to lose?
Breath and focus on your breath, slow your breath to 6-10 breaths a minute. Don't get frustrated that your mind is wandering when you notice this accept it and bring your focus back to your breath. The trick to meditation is bringing your focus back. Do this for 5 minutes.
This week I found a book in the library, "Ontketen je Brein" (Unchain Your Brain), the result of scientific research by Dutch psychologist Theo Compernolle.
In this book, he show how the brain really works and what adversely affects it.
The main thing he he does not stop repeating is: take a break, go off-line.
The main brain chains are:
Very interesting stuff to read.
Your brain learns to do what you teach it. As indicated above, if you practice concentration, your concentration will get better.
I fell out of reading books for many years, now I'm back on the bandwagon. I've been cranking on books for about six months now. Once I got back into the rhythm, which took about a week, I was able to settle down and really read again.
Concentration is a choice, just like multitasking. All the cool kids showed off by doing many things at once, and now we think that's normal, but it's just a fashion like any other fashion. I've noticed a rise is "put your phone away on holidays," for instance, or willfully putting your phone down in meetings. This is an acknowledgement that multitasking doesn't work in many situations. You may also need sleep.
a) Learn in the library. Leave your laptop/smartphone/tablet at home whenever possible.
b) When you notice that you became distracted on the computer, make a note about how long you stayed focused.
c) Make enough breaks (>1/hour) when learning.
d) Sleep enough (corollary: computer should not be taken into your bed)
d) Go to the doctor and let yourself check for possible root causes. It could very well be that it's not the electronics which reduced you attention span, but that you have some other problem (mild depression, organic problem, stress, anxiousness)
e) Seriously question if you study choice is really something you love and are well suited for. It's very hard to stay focused if you dont like the subject.
f) Play games requiring steady concentration on your phone (my favourite is 'fly dragon fly')
I was invited to an event the other day where there were a lot of very wealthy people; Bank presidents and their investors. Open bar, free food, free valet parking and coat check. While in there mostly being a wallflower (because I am not good at this sort of event), I happened to notice that nobody was sitting there staring at a screen. In fact, I heard no alerts, no ringtones, and saw no trusty smartphones strapped sturdily to the hip. Nobody pulled a cell phone out to check the time, or the weather or their messages. During the entire three hour event I saw exactly one of these people look briefly at a cellphone. It was a smartphone, but a very early model with a small screen, and looked well used. She glanced at the time and put it away.
Not drawing conclusions, just something to ponder.
If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
Get off facebook, or any other service that repeatedly urges you to see new things constantly. That will be a hard habit to break, sounds like.
Next: Exercise! It doesn't have to be intense, but being physically tired helps your brain relax and recoup when you sleep.
Lastly: review your diet. Too much caffine and too many processed carbs may be affecting you mentally. Experiment.
If you try to do all three at once, you may (from the sound of your post) be overwhelmed, but you're a grad student now. Grow up. Take responsibility. Do what you have to do to get where you want to be.
I struggle with exactly the same thing. OTOH, the real superstar developers I've seen, can instantly achieve cast-iron concentration and focus. So it matters.
I figure that it ultimately boils down to practising impulse control, and trying to avoid distractions. Surfing the web is like a string of thirty-second activity-reward cycles: open a Web page, read it, *boom* dopamine hit.
I have two strategies I use: firstly, I try and maintain my awareness of 'flow' at work, and the little things that break it. Secondly, I go out of my way to find things to do which require achieving and holding focus (but don't overdo it).
Firstly, I find that when I'm working (cutting code), things like slow compiles break my flow, because it's easy to hit Alt-Tab and start surfing shit (until I catch myself, and get back on task). So I find little ways to maintain flow; staying off email, staying off Facebook, staying off Reddit, etc etc. Ringing my terminal when compiles finish, so I can get back on track more easily.
Secondly, I go out of my way to spend my off-hours doing things that require focus, and don't involve a computer. I'm working on a maths degree, as well as teaching myself a musical instrument, and when I establish 'flow' on either activity, I know I'm benefiting. Just the mere act of practising 'establishing flow', has yielded improvements.
I know I've had a good day, when I get home, and I'm too tired to do anything else. Focus is like a muscle; initially it is weak, and needs training up, but with exercise, it gets stronger and stronger.
YMMV.
It can be tough when your family is giving you shit for being 'out of the loop'.
But then, not knowing about some random bird "breaking the Internet" with her enormous butt, is the sort of things I can do with not knowing about...
This has been going on since the advent of television, and has only gotten worse and more wide spread with the Internet and "smart phones".
Short attention span = easy to manipulate.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
"If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
I was going to comment on this earlier. Well, actually, I was going to read some of the comments, but I read about 8 emails from two gmail tabs, checked my work account in another window (alpine), checked facebook, back to slashdot but reloaded the main page again to check for new articles... what were we talking about again?
Alex, I'll take keybindings not used by Emacs for $400....
Simply dedicate time each day to memorizing anything. For example memorize Hamlet. You may not give a hoot about Hamlet but it gets you accustomed to focusing on a narrow subject for fairly long periods of time. When done with Hamlet pick a novel and try to memorize and maintain all of the novel. Education is focused on exactly that type of thing. It applies even to mathematics. I knew a school girl who committed the entire log tables to memory from one to one thousand in order to be able to conserve time on the SAT exams.
You have an anxiety disorder. That's really the only way to classify those symptoms. The good news is that there's a lot you can do to treat yourself. First, you have to make a conscious decision to tell yourself how unimportant these things are that you feel like you can't be without.
- Cut back on caffeine/alcohol for a bit and prioritize sleep.
- Take a connection-free weekend - set an updated voicemail greeting and turn the phone and computer off. Allow yourself to change tasks as much as you like, as long as you stay off the phone/computer.
- When you feel withdrawal symptoms, go get some kind of exercise. This will take the place of the dopamine hit you get from checking up on things on your phone.
- Meditation is not for everyone (or me). But learning how to accept time without distractions and stimulation is important in whatever way is best for you.
The need for constant stimulation is really just a need for a distraction from the underlying issue. Boredom is being faced with your own thoughts, fears, and worries. Are long books boring or are they just not a distraction?
Read up on drug-addiction based anxiety, since there are a lot of commonalities.
You mention electronics induced inattentiveness... Could the 18th century education model be to blame?
If you want to "detox" from the 21st century I suppose it's a noble goal just like prophets, wisemen and walk-abouts. But if you truly think it's not a fault in yourself then I give the following thoughts.
Find ways to engage with the material and the lecture. If the instructor looks bored, then help them. Especially at the graduate level if you are not engaged the professor should have put a big ole bullseye on you. If the fault is not the instructor's, (remember you are the student, the fault is yours) then you need to find a way to engage.
So if the material is not engaging enough, use the material as a launching point for exploration. A successful benchmark would be if you are asking questions that are related to the topic but more engrossing then the lecture, you are getting close. If the instructor politely says "we can answer that better after class" and then proceeds to spend 20-30minutes doing so you are doing well.
Remember this is your money and your instruction. If the instructor shuts you down, by some shades and sit in the back. If they want to work with you, then you are taking an active role in your education.
This isn't a 21st century issue, this is education and frankly the model is out moded. It was made to make the best use of those who wanted an education to get access to those who "know" and get information from them. Be an active participant, go above what is expected. Especially at the graduate level!
"Don't fear death... fear not living..." -me
My FSM, even you can't concentrate long enough to write one grammatically correct sentence.
This place and the world are truly fucked.
I am a PhD student, 4 years into a very difficult program (ecological/dynamical systems psychology... basically mathematical/physical psychology). My attention span has increased significantly from when I was an undergrad. Why? Discipline and hard work. I'm not implying you don't work hard. What I mean is that you need to re-train your brain, though. The first two years of my program involved courses where I has to read on average 500-800 pages per week (in addition to research and teaching obligations) in order to prepare for a weekly oral exam that was administered in front of my peers (it was very embarrassing to be unprepared for that!). This is what forced me to concentrate better. It wasn't fun, it sucked real bad, but I'm much. much better off for it.
Now, it does take me about an hour to get focused enough to do work, but once I get there, I'm good. So, my only suggestion is that you have to keep trying, keep reading, for many hours, even if you think you're not getting anything out of it, You are, it just takes time to see the results (kind of like working out). There might bet better way to go about this, this is just how it happened for me.
And if you don't have time to meditate, meditate twice as long.
A study, that I can't find on google, showed that even after like 15 minutes of web browsing people begin to exhibit ADD type of symptoms. The constant skimming, searching for links or clickable objects messes our brains up. Reading one book is hard for a lot of people nowadays because of the internet. Basically you need to cut off the internet for a while force yourself to take things slower, reading lengthy magazine articles is a place to start to get you back into the groove.
I used to read many books when younger. Maybe four or five a week. Earlier this year, I realised that I was down to three or four books a year. I also had trouble reading longer articles. My years of web browsing and skimming had retrained my brain to only look at small amounts of text before moving on. I did not like this. So I started a programme in my life. If I came across a longer article on the web, I forced myself to read it in full. Man, that was hard at first. I had to force myself to complete this many times, until it became a habit. It also made me realise that not all long articles were crap.
Then I turned to books. I started reading again. Start with smaller fun books, and persevere till they were done. Note them, write small book reports for myself, and keep going. Almost one year later, I am reading a book a week. I will continue this and hope to increase back to two books a week.
Self-discipline is what did it for me. I am sure that there are many other ways of approaching this and changing your own behaviour.
When you decide it's time to focus on a certain thing you may have to force yourself not to physically or mentally abandon the task at hand. It will suck, but you'll be happier when it's done and you feel like you accomplished something. Then the rest of the day or the weekend or whatever you won't obsess about the thing you didn't do and beat yourself up about it. Your mind will be more at ease and you'll be better able to enjoy life in the moment when the appropriate thing to do it enjoy the moment. Don't spend leisure time doing things that tax your body and mental resources in the same way study and work tasks do. Be active and present in the real world. For reading some people do better with a physical paper book; there are no tabs to wonder off to, and sometimes it's easier on the eyes. Whatever the format of your reading, take notes or make highlights, don't allow yourself to just passively scan without absorbing. I have a lot of issues with distractions and sound. If there is to little background noise or if there is background noise of a type that starts to engage the mind more than the task at hand, either can be an issue. Sometimes I like coffee shops because there is enough outside activity that it makes me comfortable withdrawing into my reading. Sometimes I like certain kinds of music, but most is distracting. When all else fails and every ambient conversation from coworkers in the hall or minor noises around my home cause me to constantly lose focus I like white noise like http://rain.simplynoise.com/ or http://rwww.simplynoise.com/ on a pair of headphones. It can be very difficult to make progress on large projects or difficult academic achievements as I find the mind often doesn't deal well with tasks that can't be defined in a relatable chunk. When you have to move 50 bags of soil your brain knows what to do and how to measure progress. When you have to work a cash register and help every customer who approaches for an 8 hour period and you know you'll be fired if you don't, your brain understands the constraints. These tasks also allow you to use your mind for other things while carrying out the task. When you are trying to do a small part of a large task that you can't finish in one work session and you will actually have to have your mind involved in task instead of your own thoughts or external stimuli it can be a mental battle. You have to identify an achievable action to focus on or set a certain goal that you can break out of the larger task. Examples would be like reading the next three chapters or spending five hours working on the widget design. It's important that you not let excuses about why there is some intangible road block that needs be cleared allow you to dismiss the task. If you can't proceed because of a problem then figure out the step you need to take to resolve the problem and take that step, right now. If you spend more than an hour trying to build focus into a task, just stop. It's counter productive to waste a bunch of time sitting around distracting yourself on the internet and wishing for the will and desire to manifest. That kind of behavior is exhausting to your mind and gets you nowhere. If you spend too much time thinking about having to do a task rather than doing it, it adds an artificial mental weight. As cliche' as it may be "Do or do not, there is no try."
I am sorry to say that, but your question sounds like a (unsuccessful) attempt to justify a behavior that you _know_ is wrong. So just put the phone down, forget about Facebook, and enjoy your solitude while you can. If you are lucky, you will get married, have kids, and forget the meaning of the word "boredom" for the next 20 years.
In other words: I fail to see the problem. Do your homeworks, do some sports, then go home and take a book. What exactly is it that stops you from doing this?
Or get a hobby... something creative that excites you. Maybe you like to draw or paint? Play an instrument? Those things take so much time (years) to master to an acceptable level. Start today, and in 10 years you might be a decent painter or trumpet player (as far as technique is concerned).
Maybe you just need to get a grip.
It's not your toys, it's not your electronics, it's not your friends, it's not your classes, it's not the radio/mp3/tv around you, it's not the 21st century - IT'S YOU.
Learn self discipline and control what and when and how you do things.
It's not that hard - people have been doing it successfully for centuries, until the fad to blame everyone and everything else for your own shortcomings became the norm.
In the old days (i.e. pre-90's) your parents would have taught you this, unfortunately now days your parents consider you to be a precious snowflake and didn't teach you squat, so you're on your own.
If you were in your 50's or 60's, I'd say you were suffering from Alzheimers or just having a senior moment. However, since you are in your 20's, maybe get a CT scan? That's just my opinion, as I have a complete lack of medical knowledge. Also, I'm just joking.
Like others have said, it all comes down to your own self discipline. Since you've posted the question, you're obviously aware you could be doing this better.
When you're going to a lecture, you're going there with a single purpose: to attend the lecture. Listen, take notes, ask questions. Learn. Think. Understand. All you need here is a pad of paper and a pen. Write notes. Think about what's being delivered. Technology has no place here, and utterly detracts from the experience. Writing is great: it helps you remember the material, and it also stimulates you to think about it as you are doing so. I used to make a neat copy of each lecture's notes in the evening too, maybe also doing a little extra reading around to flesh out the details and understanding, which further reinforces your memory and understanding.
Some of the comments here mention being bored in a lecture. If you're bored, it's most likely the problem is with yourself, not the lecturer (even bad ones) or the environment. Lectures are about delivery of information from the lecturer to their audience. But it's not just about rote learning and passively soaking up information. With the above strategy, I used to be familiar with all the knowledge, and had read around the subject, but most importantly I had digested it, considered it, *understood it* while many of my classmates, who hadn't done this, were still struggling to recall the basic factual details. Go to the lecture with a clear purpose: to learn and understand. Not to mess with pointless gadgets. At the end of a lecture, most lecturers will ask if there are any questions. Make it your goal to think of at least three pertinent and insightful questions to ask in every lecture or talk. Write down potential questions as you're writing the notes; it makes you critically consider the material even just by the act of copying it down. Even if you don't actually have time to ask even one of them, or they get answered later on in the lecture, it doesn't matter. It'll make you focus even more, rather than just passively absorbing the material. And it'll make you curious, and go and find the answers yourself, furthering your knowledge and understanding. And you'll do better for it, because you'll be training yourself to think and engage, and you'll potentially end up right at the top end of the class by doing so.
When I was writing up my PhD thesis, I was suffering from a combination of procrastination and distraction in an open plan office. I was moved out of the main office in the lab into an unoccupied office with a door, desk and my laptop and a big pile of printed papers. No wireless, no wired ethernet. On my own, no internet. My only purpose in that office was to read papers, look at data, and write, write and write some more. It was both liberating and extremely productive. Until I got wireless working under Linux, at which point it slacked off a bit (but I had the discipline to not do that much).
Take home point: technology is useful, but in many (most) cases it only serves to distract us from the real objectives we have. And I say this as a full time PhD software developer in the life sciences who is reading slashdot in the evening. You can make your life much happer and more productive by turning it all off, leaving it alone, and focussing upon what you really need to do. If some part of what you're doing needs it, then use it, but use it just for that task and don't let it distract you. You might be surprised at how much free time you have after you've removed all the pointless distractions and completed the real work. For things like email, ignore them entirely and read them maybe twice a day, then the incentive to continually check it is removed and you can efficiently process it in one go. If you need to read a book or paper, print it out and go and read it somewhere quiet and distraction-free, and make notes on it etc.; it'll again be better than reading it on a computer which has other distractions.
Hope that's potentially useful,
Roger
for me the the annoyance comes more from me myself trying to be very short and concise (and precise) with my words, and hating the content-less blabla that most people produce. That said, I enjoy reading literature quite a lot and do so daily during commuting.
I had a similar problem to yours when i was a student. I largely mitigate against it with a few things. I found the smartest guy in the class and stuck with him, working with hard working people made me work harder - especially if they're relying on me to complete something.
When studying, I also just accepted the fact that i was going to waste a lot of time with my gadgets and made sure to allocate enough time overall to accommodate for it ( I know this is a luxury for some). As long as i had finished the task i set out to complete, i was happy - even if it took me double the amount of time it should have. I made it goal oriented - and not an exercise in itself
I went to the library or an empty computer lab to get my stuff done, I turned it into a schedule and went there even if i had nothing to do (Turns out, there's always something to do).
I had immense trouble focusing on lectures, i couldn't do much about it. So i became selective about the ones i attended but i always made sure to go to campus when the lecture was on and sit in the library, maybe reviewing the slides the professor put online for the week.
Essentially, you need to put yourself in situations where getting shit done is the least boring option. Unless you're in a completely wrong course you'll probably find some aspects of the work interesting in itself. There are only so many buzzfeed and reddit posts you can read a day..
it takes a village to raise a child; so let the village worry about your unruly spawn.
lose != loose
My issue with phone calls is that they wig me out completely. I can't stand them at all, so I only text/email. The rest of that list, fuck yeah. Going GPS-free is the only way to learn roads.
... the trips we'd take to my technology-challenged in-laws used to be frustrating as you can imagine. These are folks that still had a rotary dial phone up until the mid-90s. They have internet access now but it's on the cheap -- a fixed amount of data transfer before you need to get out a credit card to buy more access -- and it's usually maxed out before we arrive there. I take those weekends as an opportunity to a.) bring along a good book that I haven't had time to read and/or b.) bring along my notes, reference books, and my laptop to work on a coding project that I might have in the works. Not being connected to the internet actually is a boon when I have those two things to do. There is no temptation to just check out the news or what's on my favorite web sites. (Which invariably leads to an hour or more of following links to other pages.) Disconnect from the 'net from time to time. You can actually retrain your brain to not need the constant stimulation from the web.
Now I'm off to read some actual fiction...
CUR ALLOC 20195.....5804M
Tomorrow, for 12 hours...turn it off. Leave the lid closed on your laptop.
Go do something else for a while. The world (and your world) will not implode.
Airplane mode for the times when you need to read. Set a routine so that you have time for your device and time for your life.
There was an unknown error in the submission.
A big problem you and your peers have is that you consider things to be "boring" and not worth your attention. This is a completely wrong view of life and the world, which are not configured to provide you with an optimal set of experiences.
Bullshit. You only get one life, and it's too short to waste it on boring shit. When you're on your death bed, you won't be saying "i wish i'd forced myself to do more boring shit", you'll be saying "i wish i hadn't wasted so much of my life on that boring shit."
Don't blame electronics, don't make use of the "I'm a part of generation (whatever)" excuse. Take responsibility for your own self discipline and attention span. Don't take drugs that will "fix" it, don't blame those drugs when they don't work either. Want to be better at concentrating? Practice. Turn off distractions. Tune in to your priorities.
Have you considered that your brain might actually be efficient? Normally, when I don't pay attention to something it's because it isn't something that I'm interested in. Not on my priorities. If I feel like it really should be then I just have to analyze my priorities, and the consequences. Sometimes it reminds me why I should be doing something and helps with focus, other times it leads me to realize I don't care about the thing I'm doing and I just quit before fini
- Holy crap, I've got MOD points! Who thought that was a good idea.
Your timing is just bad. I'm 50 years old, and in grade school, I was reading Bullfinches Mythology, the dictionary, and anything else dealing with words. I read Lord of the Rings, The Silmalarian, and even H.G. Wells' "The Time Machine" so many times I nearly had it memorized. By the time I was out of high school, it faded. From what I've seen of myself and trying to figure I may have had ADHD, OC, or even Aspengers. Yes I know they all say "I'm different, so I'm Aspengers" It's very, very difficult to tell precisely, but I had the same problem you mentioned. Yet I "grew out of it" and chances are, it may be ADHD, undiagnosed. My mother always said I was an active child, and the doctor told her not to medicate me, because basically I was just active. I feel that was the best idea ever. I'm not sure if there is tests you can do for ADHD but ask your doctor. How to regain that focus however, the other people may have pinned it down. I wish I had that focus and drive. I have around 50 books on my library I want to read :).
Good luck!
-- Kevin C. Redden kcredden@ gmail 392992
Meditate. even 5-10 minutes a day is a good start.
-
If our attention doesn't get regular exercise it withers and becomes weak. You actually have to practice and exercise the attention for it to become strong, it doesn't happen on it's own and it won't happen if you continue to do the opposite of what is require to be attentive, that is, always in a state of distraction. Practicing being attentive does take effort, unlike many of the other activities that present themselves in life as we know it today. I personally find that reading a book that was written at least 100 years ago helps train the attention, any artistic type hobby like painting or sculpting or etc etc. It really is a case of use it or lose it.
We answer: "Masturbate and you will find some on yourself."
"No fear. No envy. No meanness." Liam Clancy
Fair warning: my writing style isn't for the "tl;dr" crowd...this post is also not for anyone who wants to argue for its own sake...I haven't tried much to cover my ass like I would in a debate, I'm effectively sharing speculations.
In a society which is developing at an exponential rate of growth, it can be difficult to meaningfully speculate about the root cause of a given bug. Sustained mental focus and acuity is one of several attributes which I think of as "lost virtues" as I feel them become more difficult to leverage within myself, and more rare to observe in the people around me. Having reflected on this at length in recent months, I can only share what bits of perspective I have gleaned thus far.
Certainly much can be blamed on the constant deluge of information that we subject ourselves to via smartphones, tablets and laptops at the coffee shop, TVs and computers at home and at work, giant flatscreens at the mall, and ever-more-connected vehicles to keep us comfortably engorged for every minute in between. All this constant input can stretch a person's mind thin, like an over-inflated rubber balloon. There isn't adequate time to stop and concentrate on a particular piece of information, or explore a single idea with *rigor* (another of the lost virtues, connected to this one), because the next tweet comes in before I've completed my quiet reflection on the last one and let's see what it says...wait, my phone is going off...oh it's just another app update, hold on...that reminds me about this thing I saw on facebook yesterday, maybe I'll go replace this app with that new one real quick. A few minutes of fumbling with my unresponsive smartphone and its non-tactile keyboard, and I have no idea what I was originally thinking about, buried under an N-deep stack of comparatively meaningless tweets, apps, friends you've never met playing flash games, the dozens of ads I've encountered at each step of this process, and etc. There literally are fewer and fewer mental resources to devote to processing a given piece of data, as the amount to process continues to grow. Thus the balloon analogy.
Worse yet, as a consequence of the incredible adaptability of most living things, especially humans, especially our minds, this kind of daily experience (which is *completely* unparalleled in all of known history) rewards a mind which sifts rapidly through the datastream, filing or discarding each bit, getting it far out of the way with lightning speed so it can keep up with the flood, and naturally punishes a mind that might be inclined to hang on to a piece of information and actually become familiar with it, because in the time you took to be the one in every few dozen or so people who actually contemplated the meaning and consequence of this information, you've missed 4 15-second news spots and now have no idea what other relevant information you missed out on...or was it all just girl scout cookies and cats stuck in trees? You were *thinking* for a whole minute, so you don't get to know. Oh I have an idea, you could just grab that tablet and check their website, no distractions there. Feel punished yet? Your critical thinking abilities do by now.
So we have limited bandwidth for both I/O and processing making it difficult to concentrate in what we now consider our natural habitat. Then, to compensate, our mind naturally just starts filtering/filing more, and thinking less. Because that's how we're using it. That behavior leads to "use it or lose it" effects, where you have simply cut *way* back on time spent contemplating, analyzing, connecting, and processing, and so naturally your ability to do so is impacted, as your mind makes itself more suitable for its role in the brave new millennium: receiving and filtering input, and acting as quickly as possible on that information before it is out of date in a few minutes/days. I don't think we yet have any idea how crucial quiet reflective time is for the human mind. The fastest most tireless pattern-processing engine wins in the age of bi
I am a graduate student in his twenties who used to be able to read dozens and dozens of lengthy books in his childhood. Over the years, I have noticed that my attention span and ability to concentrate has decreased noticeably
Uh, yea. That's called aging dude. Get used to it.
I've been there, first a grad student and now a professor. I also teach people about how to write, so I follow the research on this. First, as you age, this will happen some; it started for me in my early 40s. Second, you don't need a lot of these distractions. You might get push-back from people; you might think you need this stuff, but start aggressively using airplane mode on your phone. Use software on your computer that blocks distracting domains for a set period of time, or even go somewhere without internet access to work. Or leave your networked devices at home. Simple. Third, the body is part of this, nutrition, sleep, cardio exercise, are all shown to have significant impact on ability to concentrate. Fourth: pay attention to your moods, set work goals, don't whip up on yourself while making yourself work, etc. Fifth and final: keep all activity sustainable and form good habits (avoid bad habits like butt-chugging caffeine, popping Ritalin, or maintaining a marijuana fog).
Two things helped me so far:
1) A Sleep Study
I thought I was sleeping well because I fell asleep easily and stayed asleep. Nope: That
was my body trying to make up in quantity what the sleep lacked in quality. I thought my problem was
caused by too many electronic distractions (yeah some, but not most of it).
You don't get enough deep and REM sleep, you don't have focus and your ability to remember new things takes a BIG hit.
My problem was ridiculously easy to treat and I deeply regret spending several years not realizing I was being fuzzier than
I needed to be for want of a couple slightly uncomfortable nights wired up.
2) Turning off the router at night
Also helpful: I put my home router on a timer. 10pm, BANG! No internet on anything but my phone, which is OK to use
for short periods as an internet device and keeps me in touch if need be. Nonetheless it's much easier for me to decide to close
my eyes now. That probably only works because my phone screen isn't very big.
This really tackles the problem IMHO, because it effectively helps filtering content, which is the main problem that we all, no only the OP, suffer. There are so many interesting articles, books, opinions, etc. to read out there, that when you are reading one of them you feel anxious about running out of time to approach the next.
"Thought is the arrow of time" seems to me like an appropriate quote for this, although a discussion of WHY I feel it is appropriate would turn this into a wall of text that would challenge the attention span of anyone! Robert Jordan's "Wheel of Time" opus was so sprawling and rambling, with so many different threads and details, that it was (a) hard to keep all the threads of the story in mind between books, and (b) outlived Jordan himself - he died before finishing it.
To a degree, I think that OP's memory is a bit rose-tinted, and he is forgetting all of those "bah, I cannot concentrate" occasions from last year. At the same time, the mental discipline to focus on a particular thing and tune out distractions is a learned skill that is easily disrupted through lack of sleep, too much caffeine (usually drunk/eaten because of the lack of sleep), hormones, and of course, the bright, shiny, buzzy phone or web browser.
As a 40-something IT guy, I have noticed the same problems in others and myself - where I used to be able to sit on a bus for 30 minutes and enjoy the scenery or people-watching, now that is a chance to catch up on the news, email or the latest lolcat pictures my daughter has posted. Actually trying to sit there and do nothing is pretty hard.
So yes, technology is giving us the chance to turn ourselves into people with the attention span of a lobotomized goldfish, but we can train our brains to deal with it, and unless you are in the late stages of some degenerative neurological disorders, there are things you can do to stop the rot.
Now... what was I doing before starting this post...
Should such behaviors simply be accepted as a sign of the times?
No more than a thirst for alchol should be accepted as a sign of the times.
There will always be things that will attract you, but that also harm you. You must have the self-control to resist them, or you will fail.
But, like many things, they may not be so harmful in moderation. So limit them to a level that you can control. Be aware, though, that your limit might be "zero".