This kicked my tiny goldfish brain into gear, probably because I now think of my brain as a goldfish brain. His experience (and mine) aren't occurring in a vacuum, either; a study published in TIME Magazine in 2015 from the Microsoft Corporation confirms people's concerns about shrinking attention spans, claiming that concentration is lost after an average of 8 seconds. It also says that people who use multiple media at once are more likely to get distracted and are less able to focus on one thing at once. However, it also claims that the "bright" side is that "our ability to multitask has drastically improved in the mobile age." There are multiple articles from other sources that are based on the Microsoft study (New York Times, USA Today - which focuses on these shorter attention spans in the context of sports media - and the Guardian, which focuses on the issue in the context of politics). However, more recent articles, like this 2017 article from the BBC, say that attention is task-based and that there isn't really an "average" attention span.
I think news like this freaks most people out, myself included, and adds to the panic that technology is making us stupid. Every time I get distracted by my phone while I'm trying to do coursework, I get this sense of almost impending doom, of "oh well, I guess I'll never be able to do any efficient work tonight or ever!" But it's important for me and other technolo-doom sufferers to remember that this is more of an adaptation to the conditions under which we have to work than a complete loss of focus.
Carr's argument that technology has made him stupid interests me because I see what he's saying, but I have a slight different opinion. I don't think overusing technology messes with my memory, but it does make me doubt myself. I was recently reading a Whitman poem for class, and it was written in 1863. I KNEW that that's in the middle of the Civil War, but I Googled it anyway. So in a way, Google/the internet has made me insecure about my intellect and I'm tempted by the reassurance of a quick search even though I know that I already know what I'm looking up.
ReplyDeleteI find your post interesting and it made me think about my own attention span. I suppose I agree with the BBC article stating that attention span is "task" oriented. I find myself able to focus on a task longer if I am interested or engaged. When I think about technology, I can see attention spans becoming shorter. There is always an ad moving, or talking, you can skim read, search for exact answers you are looking for etc. which makes us use a more multi-tasking brain. On the flip side, people tend to get bored with things or frustrated if things take too long. I agree that that using multiple media sources at once can be very distracting and is hard to filter out what it is you are attempting to focus on. There is a lot of input when using different media sources. all in all, I believe that your attention span is determined by the interest of the task or information being given. I feel differently about young children currently, as they are being exposed when their brains are still developing and connecting information.
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