It’s hard for us to resist the temptation to glance at our phones, even when we’re with friends and not expecting an urgent text or email. We also have a hard time concentrating on a task without getting distracted. One of the reasons for this lies in an innate and silent ability: sustained attention, which seems to be in free fall in the digital age. According to Johann Hari, author of Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention – and How to Think Deeply Again, this discreet ability is weakening due to the information overload we are exposed to, especially since the advent of smartphones. According to an article published in Science, the information we had access to through any medium more than quadrupled from 1986 to 2007. Presumably because of social media, that number has now grown exponentially. Living surrounded by so much fleeting information that fades so quickly has put us into a period of constant distraction that has eroded our attention spans, argues Hari. And all of this has unintended consequences, even if we don’t see them at first glance.
The habit of reading short messages or scrolling through videos quickly accustoms our minds to focus on the superficial and not delve deeper. We may read more, but we don’t necessarily understand more. The format is designed to make us consume content, not think about it, which hurts critical thinking and creativity and makes us look for simplistic solutions. Thinking takes time, effort, and a distraction-free environment. In fact, exposure to interruptions impairs our ability to respond to problems. As a study conducted at Hewlett Packard a few years ago showed, technological distractions—like receiving calls or emails—reduce our functional IQ by 10 points. Students who take a test while receiving messages on their cell phones get 30% lower grades than those who focused on the task at hand. It’s also worth noting that people tend to get distracted. We find it very difficult to concentrate and we cannot easily switch from one task to another. In fact, research from the University of California at Irvine has estimated that an office worker is only able to concentrate on the same task for a maximum of three minutes.
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When our minds are full of distractions, we are more likely to make mistakes. In addition, it also affects our personal relationships and our own quality of life. It’s hard to give our loved ones the time they deserve when we’re addicted to our cell phones. It’s difficult to enjoy something to the fullest—or to get into a state of flow, as psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi would say—when we’re faced with constant interruptions.
But all is not lost; far from it. We have the ability to train our sustained attention. The responsibility for our lack of concentration does not lie solely with mobile devices. In fact, Nir Eyal, author of Indistractable, suggests addressing internal factors that make us more prone to distractions, like boredom, avoiding uncomfortable situations, or things that harm us – like consuming online content during the day Pandemic to distract us. Therefore, the first step to regaining our sustained attention is to conduct an introspective analysis: a candid self-criticism about the use of devices in our lives, the emotions we seek to alleviate, and the price we pay for it. We need to be aware of how losing attention affects what we do, how it makes us feel, and how it affects those around us.
After this reflection and self-criticism there is a need for action. On the one hand, we need to reduce distractions as much as possible. As you can imagine, the main source usually comes from devices and we have to make choices. There are commitments that are easy to think about but difficult to fulfill if you don’t take them seriously: the commitment to check social networks or email only at certain times, to go for a walk without a cellphone, to be connected disconnecting from the internet when we don’t need it Working at the computer… essentially looking for strategies to help us reduce what really grabs our attention. If we put this into practice on a daily basis, we gain control of our devices and not the other way around.
At the same time, regaining sustained attention means not only reducing distractions, but replacing them with something else. When we normally spend a lot of time on social media, we need to trade it for something that brings more rewards or health benefits, whether it’s exercise, rest, enjoying a conversation, a hobby, or reading. In other words, we need to invest our time in what makes us happier and more fulfilled. All of this requires a serious effort to regain our attention and enjoy the pleasure of being in the present.
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