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How One Writer Is Battling Tech-Induced Attention Disorder (wired.com)
New submitter mirandakatz writes: Katie Hafner has spent the last 23 days in rehab. Not for alcoholism or gambling, but for a self-inflicted case of episodic partial attention thanks to her iPhone. On Backchannel, Hafner writes about the detrimental effect the constant stream of pings has had on her, and how her life has come to resemble a computer screen. "I sense a constant agitation when I'm doing something," she says, "as if there is something else out there, beckoning -- demanding -- my attention. And nothing needs to be deferred." "I blame electronics for my affliction," writes Hafner, who says the devices in her life "teem with squirrels." "If I pick up my iPhone to send a text, damned if I don't get knocked off task within a couple of seconds by an alert about Trump's latest tweet. And my guess is that if you have allowed your mind to be as tyrannized by the demands of your devices as I have, you too suffer to some degree from this condition."
Hafner goes on to describe her symptoms of "episodic partial attention" and provide potential fixes for it: "There are the obvious fixes. Address the electronics first: Silence the phone as well as all alerts on your computer, and you automatically banish two squirrels. But how do you shut down the micro-distractions that dangle everywhere in your physical world, their bushy gray tails twitching seductively? My therapy, of my own devising, consists of serial mono-tasking with a big dose of mindful intent, or intentional mindfulness -- which is really just good, old-fashioned paying attention. At first, I took the tiniest of steps. I celebrated the buttoning of a blouse without stopping to apply the hand cream I spotted on the dresser as if I had gotten into Harvard. Each task I took on -- however mundane -- I had to first announce, quietly, to myself. I made myself vow that I would work on that task and only that task until it was finished. Like a stroke patient relearning how to move an arm, I told myself not that I was making the entire bed (too overwhelming), but that I had a series of steps to perform: first the top sheet, then the blankets, then the comforter, then the pillows. Emptying the dishwasher became my Waterloo. Putting dishes away takes time, and it's tedious. Perhaps the greatest challenge lies in the fact that the job requires repeated kitchen crossings. There are squirrels everywhere, none more treacherous than the siren song that is my iPhone."
Hafner goes on to describe her symptoms of "episodic partial attention" and provide potential fixes for it: "There are the obvious fixes. Address the electronics first: Silence the phone as well as all alerts on your computer, and you automatically banish two squirrels. But how do you shut down the micro-distractions that dangle everywhere in your physical world, their bushy gray tails twitching seductively? My therapy, of my own devising, consists of serial mono-tasking with a big dose of mindful intent, or intentional mindfulness -- which is really just good, old-fashioned paying attention. At first, I took the tiniest of steps. I celebrated the buttoning of a blouse without stopping to apply the hand cream I spotted on the dresser as if I had gotten into Harvard. Each task I took on -- however mundane -- I had to first announce, quietly, to myself. I made myself vow that I would work on that task and only that task until it was finished. Like a stroke patient relearning how to move an arm, I told myself not that I was making the entire bed (too overwhelming), but that I had a series of steps to perform: first the top sheet, then the blankets, then the comforter, then the pillows. Emptying the dishwasher became my Waterloo. Putting dishes away takes time, and it's tedious. Perhaps the greatest challenge lies in the fact that the job requires repeated kitchen crossings. There are squirrels everywhere, none more treacherous than the siren song that is my iPhone."
I'm surprised she managed to become a "writer" if she can't even get dressed in the morning without being distracted.
The case presented was of course at the more extreme end, but how many thousands, probably millions, suffer from the same thing to a lesser but still significant degree?
The distractions around us are indeed endless. Someone sends us a text and wonders why we don't answer within, literally, seconds. We're never off work (in many professions) because we carry our phones everywhere, and we're "always connected."
Electronics have advanced us greatly but there's no free lunch.
So now we see the rise of things like the "Pomodoro Technique" --- a means of doing as the subject of the article did, namely, concentrate on just a single task for a period of time.
Do we own our devices or do they own us?
That is a real and relevant question.
I used to have a similar problem. It's why I don't use Facebook more than once a day, and I never use reddit except when I have a specific question to answer. The constant cycle of needing a spike of validation or novelty then getting bored again within a minute was driving me crazy. But I suspect my problem is more common than what the author writes about. It also sounds worse. Her problem can be solved by not picking up the phone, but the novelty addiction manifests as a gnawing addictive craving.
I'm a lot happier now that I limit myself enough that my brain doesn't get used to that crap.
A cat can't teach a dog to bark.
What is this bullshit masquerading as a news story?
1) Writer has short attention span
2) Writer wants attention, blames digital age for her inability to put the fucking phone down
3) Writer checks herself into "rehab" and writes a shitty story about how it's not her fault
4) ???
5) Profit!
Fucking hell. My entire life revolves around the computer too, since I'm a programmer and hobbyist CG artist. I don't give a flying fuck about tweets or social networking. When I'm off the computer, I'm off the computer, and my devices are sitting in the charging docks. I don't keep my phone on me if I'm hanging around the house. I don't need to keep a tablet within reach. Why? Because I don't give a shit. I don't care if my phone is beeping or making noises or whatever. I'll get around to it whenever I get around to it.
This is not "addiction". It is not Twitter/Facebook/Instagram's fault you're getting notifications. These people *like* the attention they're getting when messages show up on their screen. It makes them feel special and wanted, so they go along with it, rather than building up the willpower to simply ignore them. I have met many people like this before and they're all fucking hooked on this shit... by their own decision. They could stop if they wanted to, but they honestly don't give a shit because "who are they hurting?". So you land up with the digital equivalent of a dog where every notification is SQUIRREL! and nothing ever gets done.
But whatever, let's all give this chick the attention she deserves because she's super awesome now that she's fighting back against the evil tyranny of the services she signed up for! You go girl! Wooooo!
Unless I actually need to call someone. There's a good solution to the issue with alerts and Trump tweets. Just uninstall those applications. Personally I think of the smartphone as a communication device and occasional location tracker. News is something you can browse at home on your desktop or something.
It's usually a good idea to have separate work spaces and devices for separate tasks. If you can't have that then have separate application profiles and even desktops. It helps alleviate stress a lot.
If you didn't go see a trained professional for a diagnosis, then what you have is called Cyberchondria
AKA: tl;dr
Have gnu, will travel.
If you had to go to rehab for things you literally thought of on your own, the problem isn't the electronics. It is the person who refuses to do so. If you have genuine mental infliction preventing you from doing so, rehab is barely going to help. You'd need psychotherapy, medication, and maybe rehab for impulse issues.
So congrats for devising an almost certainly ineffective, obvious treatment a child would have thought of. Go to a psychiatrist and work on that impulse control.
We own them. Turn off the f*cking notifications unelss you're paid to have them on and are willing to do so.
There I solved the great philospphical question of the 21st century. Don't worry I require little in the way of compensation. People like the article writing STFU is all I ask. That and a case of beer a week for life
Can you configure Android or iOS to queue some or all notifications in the background
Yes. Here is a complete list of apps on my phone that have permission to push notifications: {}
I can go to each app to "pull" notifications, but I rarely do that. If I am expecting a message from, say, WeChat, I will temporarily enable notifications from only that app. Once the conversation is over, I disable it again.
If you want my immediate attention, call me. If I don't answer because I am asleep, and it is a life threatening emergency, then call 911 and ask the police to wake me up. If it is not a life threatening emergency, it can wait till morning.
Get a dumb flip phone. Text and email, maybe GPS...
If she sells her iPhone, she could get a cheap dumb phone and save a fortune.
I'm surprised that she felt the need to contribute to the same problem in others by writing this stupid story although I suppose if you are trying to sell the cure it helps to drum up some business first.
You cannot give yourself ADD by anything that you do. At most all you can do after you are born is develop lazy habits that might superficially imitate it. From what I've heard, the imbalance that causes ADD is formed in the womb, and by the time a person is born, that aspect of their mental state has long since been solidified.
Of course, a person with ADD can often still learn skills over their life that can help them mitigate their neurological disposition and function in society in a conventional manner.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
I temporarily retired (parents died, leaving me enough to coast by for a while; I'll eventually have to go back to work) and while I have a number of electronics and programming projects I want to do, I find I don't really want to do them. I've got a major case of Meh. I can focus on some things - exercise for example; I can bicycle for hours - but sit me down at my desk, and I'll look through /., FB, just about anything but the projects I "wanted" to do. It's not that I can't do them - I've already mastered the fundamental elements involved - it's just that I don't *have* to do them, so I'm not bothered to get after it. I think her phone and other diversions are just masking a bigger problem: She's bored with what she's doing and craves something - anything - more stimulating.
Then close email and close all web browsers.
See? It is easy to do!
Tried that but people show up at my desk, which is even worse
I can engineer the DND afternoons through copious garlic and onion at lunch.
Why UNIX?
Healthy people don't have a problem with this. She has a form of OCD. Look it up.
When your child does this, you know what you should do.
You take the phone away, turn it off, only allow use in certain hours.
Because you're an adult, I expect you to a) be able to do it to yourself, b) not NEED to do that as you have impulse control, c) notice if you're failing in that and grow up rather quickly.
The problem extends because people don't even apply this to their children anymore, let alone themselves. You're an adult. Grow up and stop it. Same thing that I say to smokers. If you are purely acting on base impulses and instincts, of course you'll never cure such things. Just say "Oh, no, I shouldn't be doing that" and stop it. It's not like an iPhone is coated in some addictive narcotic (though it's priced like that).
Nobody expect immediate compliance and perfect application, but come on. You know it's bad for you and you're still allowing it to happen. There's a part of your brain that's been around for millions of years and whose purpose is basically to do nothing more than override the instinctual part of your brain by applying reason. It's basically the bit that makes you a human and not an ape.
Try using it.
Oh, wait...
I see a lot of folks on here complaining with the general tone of "The author should be as well-adjusted and capable as I am". Well they're not. Big whoop. Let's not whine and actually do something productive here.
1) I think the problem is getting worse. It used to just be email. Now it's email, phone, OS, websites and even my freakin' web browser itself that want to push notifications.
2) Yes, I'm well adjusted and adapted to this environment. I've spent the majority of my life interested in tech. It's no big surprise that other folks who merely use devices (instead of being passionate about devices) might get swamped by this.
Here are some helpful links:
A great guide for turning off different types of iPhone notifications:
https://www.tomsguide.com/us/t...
Another guide for both Android and iOS:
http://www.pcworld.com/article...
A guide for Windows 10:
https://www.digitaltrends.com/...
And for Chrome (Including turning off sites asking permission, which I hate almost as much as actual notifications)
https://support.google.com/chr...
In tandem with all of this, I also recommend ad-blockers and paying for media services which eliminate advertisements (Pandora, Netflix, etc.). This helps provide a more distraction-free environment and helps maintain a low-distraction life.
This sig has been enciphered with a one-time pad. It could say almost anything.
We own them. Turn off the f*cking notifications unelss you're paid to have them on and are willing to do so.
This, I don't believe in "phone addiction" or any other such bollocks. You only have weak people who lack the self control to put the damn thing down or the intelligence to set up predefined DND period (Do Not Disturb, not Dungeons and Dragons for the contextually impaired).
A phone is a controllable object you are in charge of. If its ruling your life its because you're not disciplined enough to own one.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
Distractions are only there if you let them. Here is what I do:
1) I turn my phone silent during working hours. There's an app for that. I inform my friends that I will not be reacting while at work. The one exception I had was when my mother was in palliative care in the last two months of her life. She could call me and I would pick up, regardless what the meeting was about or where I was.
2) My phone is private, so my company better not call my outside office hours for work related stuff. My N+1 and N+2 have it, but is not allowed to pass it on. HR does not have my number, because why?
The moments I had a company phone, it was very clear for what they could call me and for what not. It was also clear that I did not have a function where I MUST be available outside office hours, so if I saw it and picked it up, fine. If not, it was fine as well. It is my free time, not their time.
People who had on-call jobs had a rotating system and where compensated for both the time they had to be on-call (even if nothing happened) and extra IF there was a call.
3) My mails are read on specific times. I have turned off the pop-up. People learn to deal with it. I read them in the morning, just after lunch and just before I leave. If there is something that needs to be solved NOW, just walk up to me.
Yes, I understand that this is not a solution for everybody. Some of those will be.
What you need to do is determine what the issue is and work from there. Put your phone on silent during dinner. Eat at a table, not in front of tv or at your desk and put all devices in silent mode during that period.
In that half hour or hour people can do things without you. If you are really that important, ask for a raise.
Also understand that an emergency is not something that happens every day. If anything it happens 2 times a year. If it happens more often, it is business as usual.
So just start with your breakfast, lunch and dinner time. Next do it with time you are together with friends and/or family and tell them you want them to do the same.
One friend of us didn't want to, because his work was important, so we started with sending him messages while he was on the phone. Next we told him that he was not welcome if he looked at his phone. He stopped doing it.
I work to live. I do not live to work. But that is pretty much accepted, including the CxO by all in Socialist Europe.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.